LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


Che 
coln  tribute  B 

appreciations  i>g  Statesmen 

Aen  of  Xettecs,  and  poets 

at  1>ome  anD  Bbroao 


ttogetbcr  witb 

: 


4f  torn  tbc  Second  9c«ian.  mafic  for  tbe  Qccasion.  bv 
From  the  photograph  by  Rice.     Copyright,  1901 

by  Gilbo  or  Co  ,  New  York 


1>oratio  Sbeafe  1?ran0 


tlbe     ftnicfterbocfcer     prcw 


^Lincoln  tribute  Booh 

\ 

appreciations  bg  Statesmen 

dben  of  Xetters,  anD  poets 

at  l)ome  ano  BbroaD 


Uogetber  witb 

H  %incoln  Centenary 

tbe  Seconfc  EJcsitjn  made  for  tbe  ©ccaeion 

IRoine 


Doratio  Sbeate  "fcrans 


(5.  p.  Putnam's  Sons 

flew  gork  an&  lon£>on 

Tlbe     "ftnicfterbocftet     prees 

1909 


COPYRIGHT,  IQOQ 

BY 
ROBERT   HEWITT 


tTbe  Itntcherbocfcer  press,  Hew  l?ock 


preface 

THIS  little  book,  including  a  full-face  Lincoln 
medal  from  a  design  made  for  the  occasion 
by  the  French  medallist  Jules  Edouard  Roin6, 
is  offered  as  a  fitting  souvenir  of  the  centenary 
of  the  birth  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  That  many 
were  eager  to  possess  themselves  of  such  a  sou 
venir  was  made  plain  to  the  publishers  of  this 
volume  when  they  brought  out,  toward  the 
close  of  last  year,  The  Lincoln  Centennial 
Medal,  which,  in  the  midst  of  appropriate  text, 
presented  a  larger  Roine  medal  on  which  the 
President  is  represented  in  profile.  That  book 
— it  appeared  late  last  year — was  published  in 
three  editions,  one  containing  bronze  medals, 
the  second  silver  medals,  and  the  third  a 
gold  medal,  struck,  all  of  them,  from  dies 
made  from  a  design  by  Roine.  These  three 
editions  were  more  or  less  costly,  and,  as 
February  i2th  was  fixed  as  the  date  for 
iii 

226379 


iv  pretacc 

the  cancellation  of  the  dies,  likely  to  appre 
ciate  in  value.  More  than  this  the  silver- 
medal  edition,  limited  to  one  hundred  copies, 
was  taken  up  rapidly,  and  was  soon  selling  at 
twice,  or  more  than  twice,  its  original  price. 

The  present  volume,  with  the  full-face 
medal,  is  offered  at  a  modest  cost  that  should 
bring  it  easily  within  the  reach  of  all  lovers 
of  Lincoln  and  collectors  of  Lincolniana. 

Two  reasons  for  its  existence  this  book 
begs  to  advance:  in  the  first  place  it  brings 
together  from  widely  scattered  sources  splen 
did  and  richly  deserved  tributes  from  states 
men,  men  of  letters,  and  poets  at  home  and 
abroad  to  Abraham  Lincoln,  whom  all  Ameri 
cans  now  count  a  chief  glory  of  his  country, 
and  who  will  have — who  can  doubt  it? — in 
coming  time  the  unmeasured  love,  not  of  his 
compatriots  alone,  but  of  men  of  good  will  all 
the  world  over;  and,  in  the  second  place,  fr 
presents  the  Roin6  medal  commemorative  of 
the  Centenary.  For  the  rest,  it  makes  no 
pretences. 

In  the  pages  that  follow  something  is  said 


preface  v 

of  M.  Rome  to  whose  accomplished  art  we  owe 
the  designs  of  the  full-face  medal  contained 
in  the  present  volume,  and  of  the  medal  itself. 
Here,  in  this  prefatory  word,  it  is  but  right  to 
say  that  the  gratitude  of  those  who  have  found 
pleasure  in  the  two  beautiful  Roine  medals  is 
due  to  Mr.  Robert  Hewitt  of  Ardsley-on- 
Hudson,  whose  unrivalled  collection  of  Lincoln 
medals  has  made  him  known  to  numismatists 
and  collectors  of  Lincolniana  everywhere.  It 
was  at  his  instance  that  both  these  medals 
were  designed  and  struck. 

In  addition  to  what  has  been  referred  to 
above  this  volume  contains  a  brief  running 
commentary  on  the  selected  tributes  to  our 
great  War  President,  which  may  perhaps  be 
found  acceptable  on  the  score  of  the  inform 
ation  given  regarding  the  sources  of  the  quo 
tations  and  other  matters. 

The  editor  is  glad  of  this  opportunity  to 
thank  cordially  Mr.  George  Haven  Putnam 
for  kind  suggestions  which  his  knowledge  of 
Lincoln  and  Lincolniana  have  made  especially 
valuable.  He  wishes  also  to  give  his  cordial 


vi  pcctacc 

thanks  to  Mr.  Roland  Clinton  for  all  kinds  of 
effective  help. 

To  the  publishers  who  have  kindly  permit 
ted  the  use  of  material  from  their  publica 
tions  specific  acknowledgment  is  made  in 
connection  with  each  quotation. 

H.  S.  K. 

NEW  YORK, 

January  9,  1909. 


Contents 

PAGE 

I. — THE  ARTIST x 

II- — THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  MEDAL     .          7 
I- — TRIBUTES  TO  LINCOLN         .         .       13 


rii 


filustrations 

PAGE 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN        .         .  Frontispiece 

From  the  photograph  by  Rice.     Copyright, 
1901,  by  Gilbo  &  Co. 

THE  LINCOLN  CENTENNIAL  MEDAL — 

OBVERSE          ...  2 

THE  LINCOLN  CENTENNIAL  MEDAL- 
REVERSE 


"flow  be  belongs  to  tbe  Bgea" 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON 


I 

Hrtist 


THE    LINCOLN   CENTENNIAL    MEDAL— OBVERSE 
DESIGNED   BY   ROINE 


Hrtfsf 

JULES  EDOUARD  ROINE,  the  designer  of 
the  medal  presented  herewith,  was  born 
at  Chantenay  sur  Loire,  in  1857,  and,  while 
still  a  young  man,  became  a  student  of  Leopold 
Maurice  at  Paris.  He  early  became  known 
in  France  as  an  accomplished  artist,  but 
it  was  not  until,  in  1900,  he  was  honored 
with  a  gold  medal  at  the  Paris  Exposition 
for  his  plaque,  "Aurora  of  the  Twentieth 
Century,"  that  his  reputation  spread  widely 
beyond  the  borders  of  his  own  country. 
M.  Koine*  is  both  sculptor  and  medallist. 
He  is  represented  by  various  works  at  the 
Luxembourg  Museum  in  Paris,  at  the  Muse'e 
de  Troyes,  at  the  Imperial  Museum  in  Berlin, 
at  the  Metropolitan  Museum  in  this  city,  and 
in  other  public  collections,  and,  also,  by 
many  works  in  the  possession  of  private 
collectors.  He  was,  too,  it  may  be  added, 
3 


Sbe  Xlncoln  tribute 


a  member  of  the  jury  for  the  Paris  Exposition. 
Among  his  more  important  statues  must  be 
mentioned  that  of  St.  Louis,  designed  for 
the  St.  Louis  Exposition. 

Roine's  latest  work  is  the  full-face  medal 
presented  in  this  volume;  the  work  imme 
diately  preceding  it  was  the  Lincoln  Centen 
nial  Medal  alluded  to  in  the  preface,  upon  the 
obverse  of  which  the  President's  head  is  seen 
in  profile.  The  illustrations  on  pages  2  and  4 
represent  the  two  sides  of  the  profile  medal, 
the  rare  artistic  quality  of  which  has  been 
everywhere  recognized. 

The  original  design  of  it  is  to  become  the 
property  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 
in  this  city,  which,  by  its  acceptance  of  the 
gift  —  it  was  offered  by  Mr.  Robert  Hewitt  — 
has  set  the  seal  of  its  approval  upon  a  work 
the  excellence  of  which  must  be  apparent  to 
anyone  with  the  least  sensibility  to  beauty. 
How  subtle  and  fine  the  modelling  of  the  face, 
which  reveals  the  dignity  and  weight,  the 
tenderness,  sweetness,  and  strength,  the 
depth  and  the  varied  richness  of  the  nature 


THE   LINCOLN   CENTENNIAL   MEDAL— REVERSE 


Cbe  Brtfst  5 

of  him  whom  it  so  finely  represents;  how 
beautifully,  too,  the  branch  of  palm  and 
the  clustered  oak  leaves  are  designed;  how 
graceful  in  their  arrangement  and  relation  are 
the  lines  forming  the  letters  that  compose  the 
words  of  the  inscriptions;  and,  indeed,  how 
choice,  how  admirably  selected,  how  har 
monious  are  all  the  details  which  combine 
to  form  this  little  masterpiece  of  finished  art, 
which  in  its  grave  and  simple  beauty  is  a 
worthy  tribute  to  the  man  whose  memory 
has  become  one  of  the  world's  precious 
possessions. 


Cbe  Ibistors  of  tbe  flfeefcal 


II 

Ibtstors  of  tbe 

T  N  making  the  design  for  the  work  here  pre 
sented,  M.  Roin£  well  knew  that  he  was 
confronted  with  the  medallist's  most  difficult 
problem.  An  easier  success  would  have  been 
won  by  producing  a  medal  representing  the 
subject  in  profile,  or  as  turned  well  toward 
the  observer.  But  in  this  case  the  artist 
faced  all  difficulties,  and,  to  our  thinking, 
successfully  overcame  them. 

When  designing  this  commanding  and  im 
pressive  head,  it  was  clearly  with  the  heroic 
aspect  of  Lincoln's  character  that  the  de 
signer  was  preoccupied.  But  in  making  this 
aspect  dominate  the  whole  conception,  the 
artist  has  never  descended  to  the  half  truth 
of  mere  grandiosity.  There  is  no  unfaith 
fulness  to  reality,  no  compromise  with  the 
9 


io  abe  "Lincoln  (Tribute  JBoofc 


facts  of  the  physiognomy,  no  blinking  of  the 
gaunt  and  homely  features.  The  Lincoln 
whom  this  medal  brings  before  us  is  Lincoln 
when  he  was  most  himself,  Lincoln  roused  at 
last  and  standing  forth  as  the  champion  of 
the  great  causes  which  were  ever  nearest  his 
heart.  Over  the  plainness  of  the  countenance 
is  cast  the  something  that,  as  a  host  of  those 
who  knew  him  bear  witness,  often  glorified  it 
and  banished  from  it  every  suggestion  of 
the  rude  or  uncouth. 

A  word  as  to  the  history  of  the  medal  in 
cluded  in  this  volume  may  not  be  found  amiss 
here.  The  large  design  from  which  it  was 
made  was  first  moulded  in  wax.  From  this 
design  a  medallion,  120  millimetres  in  dia 
meter,  was  cast  in  bronze.  It  was  from  this 
bronze  medallion  that  the  dies  were  cut  from 
which  our  medal  was  made. 

Those  unacquainted  with  the  methods  of 
medallists  who  do  their  work  in  accordance 
with  the  dictates  of  an  exacting  artistic  con 
science  will  perhaps  be  surprised  at  the  long 
and  careful  study  and  reflection,  the  brooding 


fMstorg  of  tbc  dfceDal 


care,  the  imaginative  transformation  of  raw 
materials,  which  condition  the  creation  of  a 
medal  like  that  bound  into  the  present  volume. 
In  the  case  of  this  medal,  the  artist  based 
his  representation  upon  what  are  now  the 
most  authoritative  sources  —  the  life  and  death 
masks  of  Lincoln.  Next  came  a  study  of  the 
photographs  of  the  President  —  literal  and 
faithful,  if  incomplete  and  imperfect,  records 
of  what  he  was  in  his  outward  man.  After 
this  followed  the  study  of  the  counterfeit 
presentments  of  him  which  had  been  made 
by  brother  artists  —  painters,  engravers,  and 
sculptors.  While  attending  to  these  matters, 
it  was  also  necessary  for  the  designer  to  come 
to  a  sympathetic  understanding  of  the  char 
acter  of  Lincoln  as  it  is  presented  in  history 
and  biography.  And  then,  with  all  this  by 
way  of  preliminary  preparation,  it  remained 
for  the  artist  to  form  his  own  conception, 
to  embody  it  in  the  plaster  design,  and  to 
have  this  reproduced  in  reduced  facsimile 
as  described  above. 


Ill 
Cributee  to  Xincoln 


'- 


Ill 

{Tributes  to  ^Lincoln 

ALL  nations  love  to  commemorate  their 
national  heroes,  and  set  apart  days  for 
the  purpose.  Nor  could  the  patriotic  spirit 
exercise  itself  to  better  advantage.  For  what 
can  profit  a  people  more  than  to  fix  its  atten 
tion  at  recurring  seasons  upon  some  one  of 
those — and  among  such  Abraham  Lincoln 
must  be  counted — who  approach  an  ideal 
humanity  to  the  semblance  of  which  the 
average  man  seeks  in  vain  to  bring  himself. 
Among  the  rulers  in  the  annals  of  the 
race  none  has  left  a  more  spotless  record 
than  our  great  President,  and  none  has 
shown  a  more  heroic  spirit  or  a  nobler 
temper. 

15 


16          abe  Hincoln  tribute  JBoofc 

The  Centenary,  which  will  be  observed  on 
the  twelfth  of  February,  1909,  is  no  ordinary 
occasion,  and  the  commemoration  of  it  will 
properly  be  a  matter  of  national  and  public, 
as  well  as  local  and  private,  concern,  in  which 
North  and  South  will  alike  participate.  And 
this  commemoration,  now  that  Lincoln's 
character  and  purposes  are  known  to  all,  can 
hardly  arouse,  even  in  the  South,  a  bitter 
thought.  And,  if  there  be  those  who  do  not 
now  sympathize  with  the  cause  Lincoln  cham 
pioned,  they  can  at  least,  with  a  whole  heart, 
join  in  honoring  a  noble  compatriot  for  his 
garland  of  splendid  human  qualities — his  high 
courage,  his  love  of  truth  and  justice,  his  in 
exhaustible  patience,  his  unconfinable  toler 
ance  of  all  honest  convictions,  his  all-embracing 
charity,  and,  as  the  flower  of  them  all,  a 
magnanimity  that  stifled  personal  antipa 
thies,  left  insults  and  injuries  unregarded, 
abjured  malice  and  uncharitableness,  and 
forgot  itself  in  impassioned  love  of  a  noble 
cause. 

For    the    contemplation    of    Lincoln's    life 


{Tributes  to  Xincoln  17 

and  character  this  Centenary  is  a  fitting  oc 
casion,  and  it  is  as  material  for  such  a  con 
templation  that  the  following  tributes  have 
here  been  assembled.  They  have  been 
offered,  many  of  them,  by  those  who  per 
sonally  knew  and  loved  the  man;  some  by 
those  who  have  brooded  to  good  purpose  upon 
the  story  of  his  life  and  the  nature  of  his 
achievements;  and  others  by  sworn  enemies 
of  all  the  principles  for  which  he  stood.  The 
perusal  of  them  may  bring  home  afresh  to 
the  reader  what  manner  of  man  Lincoln  was, 
and  leave  him  with  a  lively  sense  of  the  many- 
sided  greatness  of  this  national  hero,  of  his 
rich  and  genial  humanity,  and  of  those  inti 
mate,  personal,  and  peculiar  qualities  and 
idiosyncrasies  that  combined  to  constitute 
his  individuality. 

The  arrangement  of  the  tributes  that  follow 
is  chronological — though,  for  one  reason  or 
another,  there  is  an  occasional  departure  from 
this  plan — chronological  that  is,  in  the  sense 
that  those  which  apply  to  his  boyhood  come 
first,  those  which  apply  to  his  later  life  being 


1 8          abe  Xincoln  tribute  JSoofc 

arranged  in  the  order  of  time.  The  place 
they  occupy  in  this  volume  is  not  determined 
by  the  moment  at  which  they  were,  each  of 
them,  uttered. 


tributes 


T  INCOLN  early  showed  himself  a  lad  of 
promise.  As  a  boy  in  the  little  back 
woods-school  he  made  his  mark,  as  he  was 
later  to  do  wherever  his  lot  was  cast,  until, 
finally,  the  highest  honors  in  the  gift  of  his 
countrymen  were  proffered  him,  and  he  took 
a  commanding  position  in  the  great  world  of 
affairs.  In  an  account  of  Lincoln's  school 
days,  included  in  the  biography  by  Herndon 
and  Weik,  his  school-fellow,  Nat  Grigsby, 
tells  of  juvenile  distinctions: 

A  LAD  OF  PROMISE 

"  He  was  always  at  school  early  and  attended 
to  his  studies.  He  was  always  at  the  head  of 
his  class,  and  passed  us  rapidly  in  his  studies. 
He  lost  no  time  at  home,  and  when  he  was  not 
at  work  was  at  his  books.  He  kept  to  his 
studies  on  Sunday,  and  carried  his  books  with 
19 


20          £be  Xincoln  tribute 


him  to  work,  so  that  he  might  read  when  he 
rested  from  labor." 

Herndon's  Lincoln,  by  William  H.  Herndon 
and  Jesse  W.  Weik,  vol.  i.,  p.  32,  New  York, 
1  908.  Reprinted  by  permission  of  D.  Appleton 
&  Company. 

From  William  O.  Stoddard,  also,  we  hear 
how  the  boy  seized  time  by  the  forelock,  and 
made  the  most  of  his  opportunities  :  Here  is 
a  quaint  biographical  item  : 

"He  was  acknowledged  to  be  the  leader  of 
the  school  in  the  matter  of  putting  together 
the  right  letters  to  make  up  a  word.  He 
became,  in  fact,  a  sort  of  good-natured  walk 
ing  dictionary  for  the  rest,  and  it  was  at 
times  needful  to  turn  so  willing  a  prompter 
out  of  doors  during  contested  matches  or 
perplexing  recitations." 

Abraham  Lincoln,  by  William  O.  Stoddard, 
p.  43,  New  York,  1884. 

His  zeal  for  learning,  Carl  Schurz  tells  us, 
was  the  wonder  of  his  kinsfolk  and  acquaint- 


tributes  to  Xincoln  21 

"When  a  mere  boy  he  had  to  help  in  sup 
porting  the  family,  either  on  his  father's  clear 
ing,  or  hired  out  to  other  farmers  to  plough, 
or  dig  ditches,  or  chop  wood,  or  drive  ox  teams ; 
occasionally  also  to  "tend  the  baby,"  when 
the  farmer's  wife  was  otherwise  engaged.  He 
could  regard  it  as  an  advancement  to  a  higher 
sphere  of  activity  when  he  obtained  work  in 
a  'crossroads  store,'  where  he  amused  the 
customers  by  his  talk  over  the  counter;  for 
he  soon  distinguished  himself  among  the 
back-woods  folk  as  one  who  had  something 
to  say  worth  listening  to.  To  win  that  dis 
tinction,  he  had  to  draw  mainly  upon  his 
wits;  for,  while  his  thirst  for  knowledge  was 
great,  his  opportunities  for  satisfying  that 
thirst  were  wofully  slender. 

"  In  the  log  schoolhouse,  which  he  could  visit 
but  little,  he  was  taught  only  reading,  writing, 
and  elementary  arithmetic.  Among  the  peo 
ple  of  the  settlement,  bush  farmers  and  small 
tradesmen,  he  found  none  of  uncommon  intel 
ligence  or  education;  but  some  of  them  had  a 
few  books,  which  he  borrowed  eagerly.  Thus 


22          abe  Xincoln  tribute  ffioofc 

he  read  and  reread  dEsop's  Fables,  learning  to 
tell  stories  with  a  point  and  to  argue  by  para 
bles;  he  read  Robinson  Crusoe,  The  Pilgrim's 
Progress,  a  short  history  of  the  United  States, 
and  Weems's  Life  of  Washington.  To  the 
town  constable's  he  went  to  read  the  Revised 
Statutes  of  Indiana.  Every  printed  page 
that  fell  into  his  hands  he  would  greedily  de 
vour,  and  his  family  and  friends  watched  him 
with  wonder,  as  the  uncouth  boy,  after  his 
daily  work,  crouched  in  a  corner  of  the  log 
cabin  or  outside  under  a  tree,  absorbed  in 
a  book  while  munching  his  supper  of  corn 
bread." 

From  Carl  Schurz's  Abraham  Lin'coln,  re 
printed,  with  the  permission  of  the  author 
and  Messrs.  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Company, 
in  The  Writings  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  vol.  ii., 
pp.  6-7,  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York, 
1905. 

Let  those  for  whom  the  abstracted  dreamer 
is  necessarily  the  unpractical  idler  consider 
Lincoln  and  revise  their  opinions.  Mr.  Wil 
liam  H.  Herndon,  who  was  for  twenty-five 


{Tributes  to  Ztncoln  23 

years  Mr.  Lincoln's  law  partner,  cherished  no 
such  illusion,  witness  the  following  passage : 

LINCOLN  THE  DREAMER 

"Although  imbued  with  a  marked  dislike 
for  manual  labor,  it  cannot  be  truthfully  said 
of  him  that  he  was  indolent.  From  a  mental 
standpoint  he  was  one  of  the  most  energetic 
young  men  of  his  day.  He  dwelt  altogether 
in  the  land  of  thought.  His  deep  meditation 
and  abstraction  easily  induced  the  belief 
among  his  horny-handed  companions  that 
he  was  lazy.  .  .  ." 

Herndori's  Lincoln,  vol.  i.,  p.  39.  Reprinted 
by  permission  of  D.  Appleton  &  Company. 

In  the  shaping  of  character  environment  is 
a  master  force,  in  general  more  potent  even 
than  heredity.  The  following  passage,  ad 
mirably  concise  and  comprehensive,  indicates 
at  how  many  points  Lincoln's  early  surround 
ings  moulded  the  fine,  firm,  and  strong  fibre 
of  his  nature.  It  is  from  the  pen  of  John  G. 
Nicolay  who  was  intimately  associated  with 


24          Gbe  Xincoln  (Tribute  ffioofc 

Lincoln,  for  a  time  his  private  secretary,  and 
ever  his  faithful  friend. 

THE  MAKING  OF  A  HERO 

"  We  see  how  even  the  limitations  of  his  en 
vironment  helped  the  end.  Self-reliance,  that 
most  vital  characteristic  of  the  pioneer,  was 
his  by  blood  and  birth  and  training;  and  de 
veloped  through  the  privations  of  his  lot  and 
the  genius  that  was  in  him  to  the  mighty 
strength  needed  to  guide  our  great  country 
through  the  titanic  struggle  of  the  Civil  War. 

' '  The  sense  of  equality  was  his ,  also  by  virtue 
of  his  pioneer  training — a  consciousness  fos 
tered  by  life  from  childhood  to  manhood  in  a 
state  of  society  where  there  were  neither  rich 
to  envy  nor  poor  to  despise,  where  the  gifts 
and  hardships  of  the  forest  were  distributed 
impartially  to  each,  and  where  men  stood 
indeed  equal  before  the  forces  of  unsubdued 
nature. 

"The  same  great  forces  taught  liberality, 
modesty,  charity,  sympathy — in  a  word, 
neighborliness.  In  that  hard  life,  far  re- 


(Tributes  to  Xtncoln  25 

moved  from  the  artificial  aids  and  comforts 
of  civilization,  where  all  the  wealth  of  Croe 
sus,  had  a  man  possessed  it,  would  not  have 
sufficed  to  purchase  relief  from  danger,  or 
help  in  time  of  need,  neighborliness  became  of 
prime  importance.  A  good  neighbor  doubled 
his  safety  and  resources,  a  group  of  good 
neighbors  increased  his  comfort  and  his  pros 
pects  in  a  ratio  that  grew  like  the  cube  foot. 
Here  was  opportunity  to  practise  that  virtue 
that  Christ  declared  to  be  next  to  the  love  of 
God — the  fruitful  injunction  to  'love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself.'  " 

A.  Short  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  John 
G.  Nicolay,  pp.  549-550,  The  Century  Com 
pany,  New  York,  1904. 


A  deep  melancholy  underlay  the  surface  of 
Lincoln's  nature,  but  only  at  moments  was  it 
overwhelming.  For  all  the  labor,  the  stress, 
and  the  strain  of  his  life,  there  were  in  it  many 
happy  hours  when  he  keenly  felt  the  joy  of 
living,  and  took  a  humorous  delight  in  all 
the  homely  world  about  him. 


26          abe  Xincoln  tribute  JSoofc 
THE  ZEST  OF  LIVING 

"There  was  much  that  was  irritating  and 
uncomfortable  in  the  circuit-riding  of  the 
Illinois  court,  but  there  was  more  which  was 
amusing  to  a  temperament  like  Lincoln's. 
The  freedom,  the  long  days  in  the  open  air, 
the  unexpected  if  trivial  adventures,  the 
meeting  with  wayfarers  and  settlers — all  was 
an  entertainment  to  him.  He  found  humor 
and  human  interest  on  the  route  where  his 
companions  saw  nothing  but  commonplaces. 
'  He  saw  the  ludicrous  in  an  assemblage  of 
fowls,'  says  H.  C.  Whitney,  one  of  his  fellow 
itinerants,  'in  a  man  spading  his  garden, 
in  a  clothes-line  full  of  clothes,  in  a  group  of 
boys,  in  a  lot  of  pigs  rooting  at  a  mill  door, 
in  a  mother  duck  teaching  her  brood  to  swim — 
in  everything  and  anything.'  The  sym 
pathetic  observations  of  these  long  rides  fur 
nished  humorous  settings  to  some  of  his  best 
stories.  If  frequently  on  these  trips  he  fell 
into  sombre  reveries  and  rode  with  head  bent 
down,  ignoring  his  companions,  generally  he 


tributes  to  Xincoln  27 

took  part  in  all  the  frolicking  which  went  on, 
joining  in  practical  jokes,  singing  noisily  with 
the  rest,  and  sometimes  even  playing  a  Jew's- 
harp." 

The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  Ida  M. 
Tarbell,  vol.  i.,  p.  242,  Doubleday,  Page  & 
Company,  New  York,  1899. 

Lincoln's  power  as  a  lawyer  was  not  that  of 
a  man  profoundly  versed  in  his  subject.  It 
was  not,  for  example,  that  of  Judge  Logan, 
for  some  time  senior  partner,  who  was  credited 
with  rereading  his  Blackstone  each  year  from 
cover  to  cover.  It  was  not  so  much  a  know 
ledge  of  law  as  a  grasp  of  fundamental  justice 
and  an  ability  to  apply  its  principles  to  each 
case  as  it  was  presented  to  him.  This  he 
sought,  knowing  well  that,  could  he  find  it, 
and  state  it  so  simply  that  the  average  juror 
could  grasp  it,  the  latter  would  recognize  its 
power  and  give  his  verdict  in  harmony  with  it. 
That  he  was  particularly  keen  in  its  discovery 
and  happy  in  presenting  it  to  the  minds  of  his 
readers  is  the  universal  verdict  of  his  asso 
ciates.  Judge  David  Davis,  Lincoln's  ardent 


28          Cbe  Xincoln  tribute  JSoofc 

and  devoted  friend  (whose  partiality  by  the 
way,  would  have  spoiled  most  lawyers,  though 
Lincoln  would  take  no  unfair  advantage  of  it), 
dwells  in  his  eulogy  of  Lincoln  on  this  instinct 
for  equity.  He  says: 

LINCOLN  AS  A  REASONER 

"  In  all  the  elements  that  constituted  a  law 
yer,  he  had  few  equals.  He  was  great  at  nisi 
prius  and  before  an  appellate  tribunal. 

"  He  seized  the  strong  points  of  a  cause  and 
presented  them  with  clearness  and  great  com 
pactness.  His  mind  was  logical  and  direct, 
and  he  did  not  indulge  in  extraneous  discus 
sion.  Generalities  and  platitudes  had  no 
charm  for  him.  An  unfailing  vein  of  humor 
never  deserted  him,  and  he  was  able  to  claim 
the  attention  of  court  and  jury  when  the  cause 
was  most  uninteresting  by  the  appropriateness 
of  his  anecdotes.  .  .  . 

"The  framework  of  his  mental  and  moral 
being  was  honesty,  and  a  wrong  case  was 
poorly  defended  by  him.  In  order  to  bring 


{Tributes  to  Htncoln  29 

into  full  activity  his  great  powers,  it  was  neces 
sary  that  he  should  be  convinced  of  the  right 
and  justice  of  the  matter  which  he  advocated. 
When  so  convinced,  whether  the  cause  was 
great  or  small,  he  was  usually  successful." 

Eulogy  delivered  by  Judge  David  Davis  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Bar  at  Indianapolis,  May,  1865. 

It  is  to  Lincoln's  magnetic  personality,  to 
the  impression  of  honesty  that  he  created  in 
the  minds  of  all  who  saw  and  heard  him,  to 
his  strong  logic  and  trenchant  simplicity  of 
statement  that  Mr.  Frederick  Trevor  Hill 
attributes  his  success  as  a  lawyer  rather  than 
to  a  masterly  technical  and  detailed  knowledge 
of  legal  subtleties.  The  qualities  that  Lin 
coln  possessed  in  a  very  high  degree  were  those 
most  at  a  premium  in  the  environment  in  which 
he  found  himself. 

THE  SECRET  OF  LINCOLN'S  LEGAL 
SUCCESS 

"  His  natural  perceptions  were  too  keen,  his 
mind  too  generously  catholic,  to  admit  of  the 
discipline  enforced  by  the  usual  legal  training. 


30          Gbe  Xtncoln  {Tribute  JBoofc 

Education  of  that  sort  would  probably  have 
warped  his  natural  talents,  and  the  result 
might  have  been  a  conscientious  family  so 
licitor  instead  of  the  great  adviser  of  a  nation. 
He  needed  the  freedom  of  an  office  innocent 
of  patent  letter-files  and  card-catalogue  in 
dices  to  develop  his  individuality;  he  de 
manded  the  growing  room  of  a  new  country 
where  the  practice  of  the  law  was  not  con 
ventionalized  out  of  all  meaning  and  forms 
did  not  restrict;  he  required  the  self-discipline 
which  comes  of  personal  unguided  effort  and, 
unhandicapped  competition;  and  he  found 
the  requisite  conditions  in  his  free-and-easy 
association  with  Major  Stuart. 

"The  independence  and  responsibility  which 
he  experienced  in  this  partnership  allowed 
him  to  exercise  and  express  his  individuality 
at  a  time  when  stricter  discipline  and  more 
technical  teaching  would  have  fretted  him  or 
moulded  his  maturing  mind  in  a  different 
fashion. 

"  As  it  was,  he  developed  naturally  into 
a  broad-minded  counsellor  who  reverenced 


{Tributes  to  ^Lincoln  31 

the  law  without  worshipping  it,  and  whose 
sense  of  justice  was  not  dulled  by  contact 
with  unyielding  precedents. 

"If  Stewart  had  been  ambitious  to  accum 
ulate  a  fortune,  he  would  have  been  disap 
pointed  with  his  partner;  for,  with  a  people 
as  litigious  as  the  early  Illinois  settlers,  it  was 
a  simple  matter  to  stir  up  strife  and  make  work 
for  the  lawyer,  and  Lincoln,  instead  of  egging 
clients  into  the  courts,  set  his  face  against 
such  practice.  'Discourage  litigation,'  was 
his  advice  to  lawyers.  '  Persuade  your  neigh 
bors  to  compromise  whenever  you  can. 
Point  out  to  them  how  the  nominal  winner 
is  often  the  real  loser — in  fees,  expenses,  and 
waste  of  time.  As  a  peacemaker  the  lawyer 
has  a  superior  opportunity  of  becoming  a  good 
man.  There  will  always  be  enough  business. 
Never  stir  up  litigation.  A  worse  man  can 
scarcely  be  found  than  one  who  does  this. 
Who  can  more  nearly  be  a  fiend  than  he  who 
habitually  overhauls  the  register  of  deeds  in 
search  of  defects  in  titles,  whereon  to  stir  up 
strife  and  put  money  in  his  pocket  ?  A  moral 


32          ftbe  Xincoln  tribute 


tone  ought  to  be  infused  into  the  profession 
which  should  drive  such  men  out  of  it.' 

"  It  has  been  truly  said  that  these  words 
should  be  posted  in  every  lawoffice  in  the  land." 

Lincoln  the  Lawyer,  by  Frederick  Trevor 
Hill,  pp.  101-103,  The  Century  Company, 
New  York,  1906. 

Over  a  thousand  obstacles  Lincoln  fought 
his  way  to  success  as  a  lawyer,  and  regarding 
the  secret  of  this  success,  Mr.  Joseph  H. 
Choate's  view  seems  substantially  at  one 
with  Mr.  Hill's. 

NATURAL  JUSTICE  AND  LAW 

"  My  brethren  of  the  legal  profession  will 
naturally  ask  me,  how  could  this  rough  back 
woodsman,  whose  youth  had  been  spent  in  the 
forest  or  on  the  farm  and  the  flatboat,  with 
out  culture  or  training,  education  or  study, 
by  the  random  reading,  on  the  wing,  of  a 
few  miscellaneous  law  books,  become  a  learned 
and  accomplished  lawyer?  Well,  he  never 
did.  He  never  would  have  earned  his  salt 
as  a  Writer  for  the  Signet,  nor  have  won  a 


^Tributes  to  Xincoln  33 

place  as  advocate  in  the  Court  of  Session, 
where  the  technique  of  the  profession  has 
reached  its  highest  perfection,  and  centuries 
of  learning  and  precedent  are  involved  in  the 
equipment  of  a  lawyer.  .  .  . 

"  The  lawsuits  of  those  days  were  extremely 
simple,  and  the  principles  of  natural  justice 
were  mainly  relied  on  to  dispose  of  them  at 
the  Bar  and  on  the  Bench,  without  resort  to 
technical  learning.  .  .  . 

"  But  his  logic  was  invincible,  and  his  clear 
ness  and  force  of  statement  impressed  upon 
his  hearers  the  convictions  of  his  honest  mind, 
while  his  broad  sympathies  and  sparkling  and 
genial  humor  made  him  a  universal  favorite  as 
far  and  as  fast  as  his  acquaintance  extended." 

Reprinted,  with  the  permission  of  the 
author  and  Messrs.  T.  Y.  Crowell  &  Company, 
from  The  Writings  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  vol. 
i.,  pp.  88-90,  New  York,  1905. 


While  Judge  Davis  dealt  chiefly,  in  the  pas 
sage  we  quoted  from  him,  with  the  power  of 
his  reason,  J.  G.  Holland  shows  the  other  side, 

3 


34         Gbe  TLtncoln  {Tribute  JBoof? 

his  clearness  of  expression  and  trenchancy  of 
statement  : 


LINCOLN  BEFORE  A  JURY 

"  While  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  regarded  by  his 
professional  associates  as  profoundly  versed 
in  the  principles  of  law,  he  was  looked  upon 
by  them  as  a  very  remarkable  advocate.  No 
man  in  Illinois  had  such  power  before  a  jury  as 
he.  This  was  a  fact  universally  admitted. 
The  elements  of  his  power  as  an  advocate  were 
perfect  lucidity  of  statement,  great  fairness 
in  the  treatment  of  both  sides  of  a  case,  and 
the  skill  to  conduct  a  common  mind  along  the 
chain  of  his  logic  to  his  own  conclusion.  In 
presenting  a  case  to  a  jury,  he  invariably  pre 
sented  both  sides  of  it.  After  he  had  done 
this,  there  was  really  little  more  to  be  said, 
for  he  could  generally  state  the  points  of  his 
opponent  better  than  his  opponent  could  state 
them  for  himself.  The  man  who  followed  him 
usually  found  himself  handling  that  which 


{Tributes  to  ILincotn  35 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  already  reduced  to  chaff. 
"There  was  really  no  trick  about  this.  In 
the  first  place,  he  would  not  take  a  case  in 
which  he  did  not  believe  he  was  on  the  side  of 
justice.  Believing  that  the  right  was  with 
him,  he  felt  that  he  could  afford  to  give  the 
opposing  counsel  everything  that  he  could 
claim,  and  still  have  material  enough  left  for 
carrying  his  verdict.  His  fairness  was  not 
only  apparent  but  real,  and  the  juries  he  ad 
dressed  knew  it  to  be  so.  He  would  stand 
before  a  jury  and  yield  point  after  point  that 
nearly  every  other  lawyer  would  dispute  under 
the  same  circumstances,  so  that,  sometimes, 
his  clients  trembled  with  apprehension;  and 
then,  after  he  had  given  his  opponent  all  he 
claimed,  and  more  than  he  had  dared  to  claim, 
he  would  state  his  own  side  of  the  case  with 
such  power  and  clearness  that  that  which  had 
seemed  strong  against  him  was  reduced  to 
weakness,  that  which  had  seemed  to  be  sound 
was  proved  to  be  specious,  and  that  which  had 
the  appearance  of  being  conclusive  against  him 
was  plainly  seen  to  be  corroborative  of  his  own 


36          Gbe  ^Lincoln  tribute  JBoofc 

positions   on    the   question    to    be  decided." 

The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  J.  G. 
Holland,  pp.  78-80,  Springfield,  Mass.,  1866. 

The  rare  faculty  of  reducing  subjects — legal 
or  other — of  the  most  baffling  complexity  to 
their  simplest  terms  and  stating  them  in  the 
most  lucid  and  forceful  way  was  in  a  pre 
eminent  degree  an  element  of  Lincoln's  genius. 
Of  a  famous  instance  of  the  exercise  of  the  fac 
ulty  referred  to,  Mr.  Frederick  Trevor  Hill  says : 

GIFT  FOR  LUCID  STATEMENT 

"  Again  with  quieting  firmness  he  handled 
the  Dred  Scott  case,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
and  the  other  legal  questions  in  dispute,  di 
vesting  them  of  all  technicalities  and  disre 
garding  their  complicated  refinements  until 
he  reached  the  real  issues  and  showed  that  all 
the  points  in  controversy  could  be  adjusted 
by  well  recognized  principles  of  law.  In  a 
word,  he  placed  the  secessionists  for  the  first 
time  on  the  defensive,  appealed  to  the  deep 
and  law-abiding  sentiment  of  the  American 
people,  and  afforded  the  supporters  of  the 


{Tributes  to  Xincoln  37 

Union  a  firm,  legal  foothold.  He  knew  the 
moral  effect  of  a  legal  authority  which  the  peo 
ple  could  understand,  and  the  importance  of 
his  clear,  prompt  announcement  can  not  be 
overestimated." 

Lincoln  the  Lawyer,  by  Frederick  Trevor 
Hill,  pp.  296-297,  The  Century  Company, 
New  York,  1906. 

Of  the  difficult  art  of  cross-examination, 
Lincoln  was  a  masterly  practitioner,  and 
some  sort  of  psychic  power  seemed  to  aid 
him  here  as  elsewhere.  Such  is  Mr.  Frederick 
Trevor  Hill's  opinion.  From  his  book,  a  work 
of  prime  interest  to  the  lawyer  in  particular, 
and  in  general  to  the  general  public,  we  take 
the  following  passage  that  bears  upon  what 
we  have  just  said: 

PSYCHIC  POWER  AND  CROSS- 
EXAMINATION 

"  Cross-examination  makes  greater  demands 
upon  a  lawyer  than  any  other  phase  of  trial 
work,  and  it  has  been  rightly  termed  an  art. 
To  succeed  in  it  the  practitioner  must  be 


3s          Gbe  Xincoln  tribute  JBooft 

.  .  .  far-sighted,  tactful,  and  a  keen  judge  of 
human  nature.  All  these  qualities  Lincoln 
possessed  to  an  unusual  degree,  and,  in  addi 
tion,  he  exerted  a  remarkable  personal  in 
fluence  upon  every  one  with  whom  he  came 
into  contact.  Men  who  were  openly  opposed 
to  him  became  fascinated  when  they  met 
him,  and  few  ever  retained  their  hostility.  .  .  . 
"  He  was  direct,  simple,  and  unaffectedly 
frank,  and  the  conclusion  is  irresistible  that 
he  was  endowed  with  psychic  qualities  of 
extraordinary  power.  More  than  one  man 
has  described  the  effect  of  Lincoln's  eyes  by 
saying  that  they  appeared  to  look  directly 
through  whatever  he  concentrated  his  gaze 
upon,  and  it  is  well  known  that  during  his 
frequent  fits  of  abstraction  he  became  abso 
lutely  oblivious  to  the  bustle  and  confusion 
of  the  court-room  and  saw  nothing  of  the 
scene  before  him." 

Lincoln     the    Lawyer,    pp.     226-228,    The 
Century    Company. 

Lincoln's    wit    in    general  took  a  kindly 


{Tributes  to  ^Lincoln  39 

turn,  but  it  was  on  occasions  sharp  and  biting, 
witness  the  anecdotes  that  follow: 

MORDANT  WIT  IN  COURT 

"But  the  best  possible  proof  that  Mr.  Lin 
coln  was  an  unusually  fair  practitioner  and 
generous  opponent  is  the  fact  that  he  made 
no  enemies  in  the  ranks  of  his  profession  dur 
ing  all  his  active  and  varied  career. 

44  Forbearance  is  often  mistaken  for  timidity, 
and  tact  for  weakness,  and  it  not  infrequently 
happened  that  Lincoln's  professional  oppo 
nents  misinterpreted  his  attitude  toward  them; 
but  they  were  always  speedily  disillusioned. 
Mr.  Swett  remarked  that  '  any  one  who  took 
Lincoln  for  a  simple-minded  man  [in  the  court 
room]  would  very  soon  wake  up  on  his  back 
in  a  ditch ' ;  and  although  he  seldom  resorted 
to  tongue-lashing,  and  rarely  displayed  anger, 
there  is  abundant  evidence  that  no  one  ever 
attacked  him  with  impunity. 

"Judge  Weldon  told  the  writer  that  on 
one  occasion  an  attorney  challenged  a  juror 


40         abe  ^Lincoln  tribute  3Boofc 

because  of  his  personal  acquaintance  with 
Mr.  Lincoln,  who  appeared  for  the  other 
side. 

"  Such  an  objection  was  regarded  as  more 
or  less  a  reflection  upon  the  honor  of  an  at 
torney  in  those  days,  and  Judge  Davis,  who 
was  presiding  at  the  time,  promptly  over 
ruled  the  challenge;  but  when  Lincoln  rose  to 
examine  the  jury  he  gravely  followed  his  ad 
versary's  lead  and  began  to  ask  the  talesmen 
whether  they  were  acquainted  with  his  op 
ponent. 

"  After  two  or  three  had  answered  in  the 
affirmative,  however,  his  Honor  interfered. 

'"Now,  Mr.  Lincoln/  he  observed  severely, 
'you  are  wasting  time.  The  mere  fact  that 
a  juror  knows  your  opponent  does  not  dis 
qualify  him.' 

"'No,  your  Honor/  responded  Lincoln, 
dryly.  'But  I  am  afraid  some  of  the  gentle 
men  may  not  know  him,  which  would  place 
me  at  a  disadvantage.'  " 

Lincoln  the  Lawyer,  by  Frederick  Trevor  Hill, 
pp.  212,  215. 


{Tributes  to  Xincoln  41 

The  firm  of  Lincoln  and  Herndon  must 
have  been  a  remarkable  one,  although  the 
junior  partner  was  undoubtedly  Lincoln's  in 
ferior  in  every  respect  save  in  the  matter  of 
education.  Herndon  had,  nevertheless,  an 
excellent  mind,  and  read  with  sympathetic 
insight  the  great  man's  character.  In  general 
he  knows  whereof  he  writes,  but  the  reader 
may  safely,  now  and  then,  take  him  with 
a  grain  of  allowance.  In  the  passage  which 
we  quote  below  we  are  inclined  to  think  he 
does  scant  justice  to  Lincoln's  acquaintance 
with  books.  Lincoln  was  not  a  bookman 
in  the  sense  that  he  devoured  authors  vora 
ciously  or  swallowed  them  whole.  But  when 
he  did  read  a  book,  he  read,  marked,  learned, 
and  inwardly  digested  it,  and  made  it  his 
own.  It  was  not  his  way  to  wear  his  accom 
plishments  on  his  sleeve,  and  he  may  well  have 
read  more  books  than  he  discussed.  That  his 
book-knowledge,  at  least  in  the  years  of  his 
presidency,  was  more  extensive  than  Herndon 
would  have  us  believe,  is  the  inference  that 
must  be  drawn  from  L.  E.  Chittenden's  Recol- 


42          cbe  ^Lincoln  ^Tribute  JBoofc 

lections.  In  that  book  the  author  quotes  a 
protest  of  Professor  Joseph  Henry,  an  eminent 
savant,  and  at  the  time  Secretary  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institute,  to  the  effect  that  the 
current  notions  about  the  President's  ignor 
ance  were  all  wrong;  that  the  President  had 
read  many  books;  and  that  he  remembered 
them  better  than  he  (Professor  Henry)  him 
self  did. 

LINCOLN  AS  READER  AND  THINKER 

"The  truth  about  Mr.  Lincoln  is  that  he 
read  less  and  thought  more  than  any  man 
in  his  sphere  in  America.  No  man  can  put 
his  finger  on  any  great  book  written  in  the 
last  or  present  century  that  he  read  thor 
oughly.  When  young,  he  read  the  Bible, 
and  when  of  age,  he  read  Shakespeare;  but, 
though  he  often  quoted  from  both,  he  never 
read  either  one  through. 

"  He  is  acknowledged  now  to  have  been  a 
great  man,  but  the  question  is,  What  made 
him  great?  I  repeat,  that  he  read  less  and 


{Tributes  to  Xincoln  43 

thought  more  than  any  man  of  his  standing  in 
America,  if  not  in  the  world. 

"  He  possessed  originality  and  power  of 
thought  in  an  eminent  degree.  Besides  his 
well  established  reputation  for  caution,  he 
was  concentrated  in  his  thoughts  and  had 
great  continuity  of  reflection.  In  every 
thing  he  was  patient  and  enduring.  These 
are  some  of  the  grounds  of  his  wonderful 
success." 

Herndon's  Lincoln,  by  William  H.  Herndon, 
and  Jesse  Weik,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  593-594.  Re 
printed  by  permission  of  D.  Appleton  & 
Company. 

The  following  quotation  from  Arnold's  biog 
raphy  conveys  a  very  different  impression  of 
the  place  books  had  in  the  President's  life  from 
that  created  by  Herndon's  words.  To  say,  as 
Herndon  says,  that  he  never  read  either  the 
Bible  or  Shakespeare  through  is  not  a  damag 
ing  statement,  or,  if  such  it  be,  might  it  not 
strike  many  a  professional  man  of  letters  as 
hard  as  it  did  Lincoln? 


44          Cbe  Lincoln  tribute  JSoofc 

LINCOLN    AND  LITERATURE 

"  The  two  books  which  he  read  most  were 
the  Bible  and  Shakespeare.  With  these  he 
was  perfectly  familiar.  From  the  Bible,  as 
has  before  been  stated,  he  quoted  frequently, 
and  he  read  it  daily,  while  Shakespeare  was 
his  constant  companion.  He  took  a  copy  of 
him  almost  always  when  travelling,  and  read 
it  at  leisure  moments.  He  had  a  great  love 
for  poetry  and  eloquence,  and  his  taste  and 
judgment  were  excellent.  Next  to  Shake 
speare  among  the  poets  was  Burns.  There 
was  a  lecture  of  his  upon  Burns  full  of  favor 
ite  quotations  and  sound  criticism.  He 
sympathized  thoroughly  with  the  poem,  'A 
Man  's  a  Man  for  A'  That.'  He  was  very 
fond  of  simple  ballads,  of  simple,  old-fashioned , 
sad,  and  plaintive  music.  He  loved  to  hear 
Scotch  ballads  sung,  and  negro  melodies,  and 
camp-meeting  hymns.  Holmes's  poem  of 
'  The  Last  Leaf '  was  with  him  a  great  favor 
ite.  He  recited  and  read  works  of  poetry  and 
eloquence  with  great  simplicity  but  with  much 


{Tributes  to  Xtncoln  45 

expression  and  effect.  When  visiting  the 
army,  or  on  a  journey  on  a  steamer  or  by  rail, 
as  well  as  when  at  home,  he  would  take  up  his 
copy  of  Shakespeare  and  would  often  read 
aloud  to  his  companions.  He  would  remark: 
*  What  do  you  say  now  to  a  scene  from  Ham 
let  or  Macbeth  ? '  and  then  he  would  read 
aloud  with  the  greatest  pleasure  scene  after 
scene  and  favorite  passages,  never  seeming 
to  tire  of  the  enjoyment.Tf-GrTETieTast  Sunday 
of  his  life,  as  he  was  on  the  steamer  returning 
from  his  visit  to  Richmond  and  City  Point, 
he  read  aloud  many  extracts  from  Shake 
speare.  He  read  among  other  passages  the 
following  from  Macbeth: 

"'Duncan  is   in  his  grave; 
After  life's  fitful  fever  he  sleeps  well; 
Treason  has  done  his  worst:  nor  steel  nor 

poison, 

Malice  domestic,  foreign  levy,  nothing, 
Can  touch  him  further.' 

"  Senator  Sumner  said  that  '  impressed  by 
its  beauty,  or  by  something  else,  he  read  the 
passage  a  second  time.'  His  tone,  manner, 


46          cbe  ^Lincoln  tribute  JBoofc 

and  accent  were  so  impressive  that,  after  his 
assassination,  his  friends  recalled  the  incident, 
and  with  it  a  passage  from  the  same  play: 

'"This  Duncan 

Hath  borne  his  faculties  so  meek,  hath  been 
So  clear  in  his  great  office,  that  his  virtues 
Will  plead  like  angels,  trumpet-tongued, 

against 
The  deep  damnation  of  his  taking-off.'  " 

The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  Isaac 
N.  Arnold,  pp.  443-445,  A.  C.  McClurg, 
Chicago,  1906. 

HIS  VEIN  OF  POETRY  AND  SENSE  OF 
FUN 

"  He  was  a  poet,  but  he  was  a  man  in  such 
straits,  in  such  tremendous  earnest,  that  he 
used  every  iota  of  every  force  and  element 
in  his  own  nature  and  in  his  knowledge  of  men, 
in  the  most  effective  way  he  could,  to  his 
great  end.  Throughout  three  years  he  was 
a  man  entirely  dominated  by  a  purpose — a 
purpose  which  integrated  and  perfected  his 
character. 


^Tributes  to  Xincoln  47 

"But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  all  this 
was  evident  to  the  men  with  whom  he  came 
most  frequently  in  contact.  He  was  more  than 
ever  a  riddle  to  the  wisest  among  them,  more 
than  ever  a  kindly  simpleton  or  merry-andrew 
to  the  less  wise  and  more  self-confident.  In 
deed  it  was  only  too  easy  to  mistake  his  real 
quality,  and  to  lay  undue  emphasis  on  its 
more  superficial  aspects.  Often  it  is  the 
more  trivial  incidents  in  his  story  which  cling 
longest  in  one's  memory. 

11  Several  of  these  had  already  occurred  in 
the  journey  from  Springfield,  to  the  confusion 
of  multitudes  of  his  severe  and  serious  sup 
porters,  especially  in  the  Eastern  States. 
He  had  joked  his  admirers  on  his  personal 
appearance.  He  had  begun  to  cultivate  some 
stubbly  whiskers  on  the  demand  of  a  little 
girl  who  had  written  to  suggest  that  they 
would  be  an  improvement.  And  when  he 
found  her  awaiting  him  en  route,  he  had 
kissed  her  paternally,  and  exhibited  his  conces 
sions  to  her  childish  and  perhaps  impertinent 
interest. 


48          abe  Xincoln  tribute  JSook 

"But  over  and  beyond  all  such  incidents — 
and  they  might  be  multiplied  indefinitely — 
the  root  of  his  offending  lay  in  his  insatiable 
passion  for  the  ridiculous  As  some  one  has 
suggested,  he  would  stoop  to  pick  his  favorite 
pearl  of  laughter  out  of  any  muck-heap. 

"  He  needed  laughter  and  gave  himself  up 
to  it.  It  seemed  to  bring  relief  to  his  whole 
overwrought  body  and  soul.  Also,  he  needed 
tears:  and  these  two  needs  were  almost  con 
stant  in  the  hard  years  through  which  we  have 
now  to  follow  him.  To  the  minds  of  some 
at  least  of  his  new  companions,  sharers  in 
his  great  national  task,  they  ill  became  a 
statesman.  But  for  better  or  worse,  such 
was  the  man  chosen  to  disentangle  the  con 
fused  threads  of  American  destiny.  " 

Abraham  Lincoln,  by  Henry  Bryan  Binns, 
pp.  222-223,  E.  P.  Button,  New  York, 
1907. 

PRACTICAL    JOKES    IN    THE    GRAND 
STYLE 

There  is,  perhaps,   no  aspect  of  Lincoln's 


(Tributes  to  OLincoln  49 

many-sided  character  which  appeals  more  to 
the  people  than  his  humor.  Much  as  it  an 
noyed  some  of  his  graver  associates,  who 
could  not  accustom  themselves  to  having 
important  business  interrupted  by  one  of  his 
anecdotes,  or  the  conduct  of  a  Cabinet  meeting 
preluded  by  a  chapter  from  Artemus  Ward, 
it  has  proved  the  delight  of  the  many  and 
has  increased  the  affection  of  posterity  for 
him.  Examples,  submitted  in  evidence  of 
Lincoln's  humor  are  the  best  tribute  to 
this  faculty,  which  in  him  was  developed  to 
such  an  extraordinary  degree. 

It  had  a  very  practical  value  as  well,  and 
a  double  function.  In  the  first  place,  it  was 
relaxation  to  Lincoln  himself  from  his  fearful 
responsibilities;  and,  in  the  second,  it  served 
many  a  time  to  carry  home  his  arguments  in  a 
way  which  no  amount  of  cold  logic  could  have 
done. 

The  practical  joke — practical  in  more 
senses  than  one — which  he  played  on  Horace 
Greeley  shows  well  to  what  a  useful  purpose 
he  could  turn  his  sense  of  fun. 


50         Gbe  Xtncoln  tribute  JBoofc 

Greeley,  during  the  Summer  of  1864,  took 
Lincoln  much  to  task  for  not  bringing  the 
war  to  an  end,  claiming  that  this  might  have 
been  done  successfully.  Lincoln,  although 
convinced  of  the  futility  of  such  an  endeavor, 
acquiesced  in  Greeley's  suggestion  and — as  a 
kind  of  practical  joke,  possibly — appointed 
him  a  representative  to  deal  with  the  South. 
The  wind  thus  taken  out  of  his  sails,  Greeley, 
to  save  himself  from  a  ridiculous  position, 
was  obliged  to  embark  on  what  proved  a 
wild-goose  chase.  Thus  did  Lincoln  silence 
a  harsh  critic. 

The  trick  he  played  on  the  dignified  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  re 
calls  the  incident  of  the  Greeley  appointment. 
Jealous  of  his  associate  Seward,  who  occupied 
the  first  position  in  the  Cabinet,  Chase  made 
capital  of  the  popular  notion  which  found 
Seward  responsible  for  what  were,  in  some 
quarters,  regarded  as  the  mistakes  of  the 
administration,  and  encouraged  action  on  the 
part  of  some  discontented  Senators  looking 
toward  Seward's  removal.  Accordingly,  a 


tributes  to  ^Lincoln  51 

committee  of  the  Senate  waited  upon  the 
President  with  a  demand  that  the  Cabinet 
be  reconstructed — merely  a  polite  way  of 
asking  for  the  dismissal  of  Seward. 

The  President  gave  them  no  satisfaction,  but 
invited  them  to  return  that  evening  at  a  certain 
hour.  He  then  notified  his  Cabinet,  without 
disclosing  to  them  his  purpose,  to  be  present  at 
the  same  hour.  What  was  the  astonishment 
of  the  Senators  at  being  confronted  by  the 
Cabinet  of  which  they  demanded  a  recon 
struction,  and  what  was  Secretary  Chase's 
surprise  and  indignation  at  being  obliged  to 
side  with  his  fellow  Secretaries  against  the  very 
committee  which  was  carrying  out  his  purpose. 

Though  thus  often  turned  to  practical 
advantage,  Lincoln's  fun  was  never  cruel; 
on  the  contrary  it  showed  in  general  a  sweet 
reasonableness  only  too  rare  in  strong  success 
ful  men.  His  dealings  with  the  aggressive 
Stanton  gave  constant  proof  of  this. 

LINCOLN  AND  STANTON 
"A  committee  of  Western  men,  we  are  told, 


52          3be  ^Lincoln  tribute  OBooh 

headed  by  Congressman  Owen  Lovejoy  of 
Illinois,  called  on  the  President  to  urge  that 
a  spirit  of  national  unity  might  be  promoted 
in  the  army  by  the  mingling  of  Eastern  and 
Western  troops.  The  plan  on  its  apparent 
merits,  as  well  as  because  it  was  presented  by 
a  warm  personal  and  political  friend,  inter 
ested  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  wrote  a  note  to  the 
Secretary  of  War  suggesting  a  transfer  of 
some  of  the  regiments.  As  the  scheme 
seemed  impracticable  to  Mr.  Stanton,  he 
refused  to  carry  it  out. 

"'But  we  have  the  President's  order,  sir,' 
said  Mr.  Lovejoy. 

"'Did  Lincoln  give  you  an  order  of  that 
kind?'  asked  the  Secretary. 

"'  He  did,  sir.' 

'"Then  he  is  a  damned  fool!'  was  the 
response. 

"'Do  you  mean  to  say  the  President  is  a 
damned  fool  ? '  asked  the  Congressman  in 
amazement. 

" '  Yes,  sir,  if  he  gave  you  such  an  order  as 
that.' 


{Tributes  to  lincoln  53 

"Returning  to  the  executive  mansion,  Mr. 
Lovejoy  reported  the  result  of  the  conference. 

"  '  Did  Stanton  say  I  was  a  damned  fool? ' 
asked  Mr.  Lincoln  at  the  close  of  the  recital. 

'"He  did,  sir,  and  repeated  it.' 

"'If  Stanton  said  I  was  a  damned  fool,' 
concluded  the  President  thoughtfully,  'then 
I  must  be  one;  for  he  is  nearly  always  right, 
and  generally  says  what  he  means.'  " 

Lincoln:  Master  of  Men:  A  Study  in  Charac 
ter,  by  Alonzo  Rothschild,  pp.  234—235, 
Houghton,  Mifflin,  Boston  and  New  York,  1908. 

Nor  is  the  spice  of  humor  wanting  in  the 
following  authentic  anecdote: 

LINCOLN'S    "INFLUENCE    WITH    THE 
ADMINISTRATION  " 

"  Those  who  came  with  an  appeal  from  Mr. 
Stanton's  decision  were  sometimes  received 
as  was  Judge  Baldwin  of  California.  He  ap 
plied  for  a  pass  through  the  lines  to  visit  his 
brother  in  Virginia.  As  both  of  them  were 
Union  men,  there  seemed  to  be  no  good  reason 
why  it  should  not  be  granted. 


54         Gbe  Xincoln  tribute 


"'Have  you  applied  to  General  Halleck?' 
inquired  the  President. 

"  '  Yes,'  answered  the  Judge,  'and  met  with 
a  flat  refusal.' 

"'Then  you  must  see  Stanton,'  said  Mr. 
Lincoln. 

"'I  have,  and  with  the  same  result,'  was 
the  reply. 

'"Well  then,'  rejoined  the  President,  with 
a  smile,  '  I  can  do  nothing;  for  you  must  know 
that  I  have  very  little  influence  with  this 
administration.'  " 

Lincoln  Master  of  Men,  pp.  232-233,  Hough  - 
ton,  Mifflin. 

Emerson  says  a  word  of  Lincoln's  gift  for 
the  writing  of  humorous  fables  and  proverbs 
that  may  well  be  here  set  down: 

LINCOLN  THE  FABULIST 

"  It  is  certain  that  the  good  things  of  Lincoln 
were  first  so  disguised  as  pleasantries  that  they 
had  no  reputation  but  as  jests,  and  only  later, 
by  the  very  acceptance  and  adoption  they 
found  in  the  mouths  of  the  millions,  turned 


tributes  to  Lincoln  55 

out  to  be  the  wisdom  of  the  hour.  I  am  sure 
if  this  man  had  lived  in  a  period  of  less  facility 
of  printing,  he  would  have  become  mythical 
in  a  very  few  years,  like  ^Esop  or  Pilpay,  or 
one  of  the  seven  wise  masters,  by  his  fables 
and  his  proverbs.  " 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  as  quoted  in  The 
Lincoln  Centennial  Medal,  p.  26,  New  York 
and  London,  1908. 

Lincoln  was  true  as  steel  to  his  friends,  and 
knew  how  to  value  them.  A  tribute  to  Stan- 
ton  like  that  which  follows  honors  both  him 
who  paid  it  and  him  who  received  it: 

GENEROUS  PRAISE 

"'Gentlemen,'  he  said,  'it  is  my  duty  to 
submit.  I  cannot  add  to  Mr.  Stanton's 
troubles.  His  position  is  one  of  the  most 
difficult  in  the  world.  Thousands  in  the 
army  blame  him  because  they  are  not  pro 
moted,  and  other  thousands  out  of  the  army 
blame  him  because  they  are  not  appointed. 
The  pressure  upon  him  is  immeasurable  and 
unending.  He  is  the  rock  on  the  beach  of 


56          Gbe  Utncoln  tribute  JBoofe 

our  national  ocean  against  which  the  breakers 
dash  and  roar,  dash  and  roar  without  ceasing. 
He  fights  back  the  angry  waters  and  prevents 
them  from  undermining  and  overwhelming 
the  land.  Gentlemen,  I  do  not  see  how  he 
survives, — why  he  is  not  crushed  and  torn 
to  pieces.  Without  him  I  should  be  de 
stroyed.  He  performs  his  task  superhu- 
manly.  Now  do  not  mind  this  matter  for 
Mr.  Stanton  is  right  and  I  cannot  wrongly 
interfere  with  him.'  ' 

Lincoln,  Master  of  Men,  Alonzo  Roths 
child,  p.  236,  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Company. 

If  a  man  who  can  by  his  words  sway  great 
masses  of  men  to  his  will,  and  rouse  their 
deepest  feelings  to  the  support  of  his  views 
be  a  great  orator,  then  Lincoln  was  such. 
The  effect  of  his  spoken  words — witness  his 
triumph  at  Cooper  Institute  in  New  York, 
on  February  27,  1860 — upon  public  opinion 
at  a  critical  moment  in  American  history  can 
hardly  be  overestimated.  His  oratory  was  of 
a  kind  that  disdained  all  flowers  of  speech  and 


{Tributes  to  Itncoln  57 

all  rhetorical  tricks;  but  it  touched  the  heart, 
and  carried  conviction  with  it.  Of  Lincoln 
as  an  orator  Mr.  Horace  White  says: 

AS  AN  ORATOR 

"  Sometimes  his  manner  was  very  impas 
sioned,  and  he  seemed  transfigured  with  his 
subject.  .  .  Then  the  inspiration  that  pos 
sessed  him  took  possession  of  his  hearers  also. 
His  speaking  went  to  the  heart  because  it 
came  from  the  heart.  I  have  heard  cele 
brated  orators  who  could  start  thunders  of 
applause  without  changing  any  man's  opin 
ion.  Mr.  Lincoln's  eloquence  was  of  the 
higher  type,  which  produced  conviction  in 
others  because  of  the  conviction  of  the  speaker 
himself.  His  listeners  felt  that  he  believed 
every  word  he  said,  and  that,  like  Martin 
Luther,  he  would  go  to  the  stake  rather  than 
abate  one  jot  or  tittle  of  it.  .  . 

"  That  there  were,  now  and  then,  electrical 
discharges  of  high  tension  in  Lincoln's  elo 
quence  is  a  fact  little  remembered,  so  few 
persons  remain  who  ever  came  within  its 


58          £be  ILincoln  tribute  ;©ook 

range.  The  most  remarkable  outburst  took 
place  at  the  Bloomington  Convention  of  May 
29,  1856,  at  which  the  anti-Nebraska  forces 
of  Illinois  were  first  collected  and  welded 
together  as  one  party.  Mr.  John  L.  Scripps, 
editor  of  the  Chicago  Democratic  Press,  who 
was  present — a  man  of  gravity  little  likely  to 
be  carried  off  his  feet  by  spoken  words — said : 

"  '  Never  was  an  audience  more  completely 
electrified  by  human  eloquence.  Again  and 
again  during  its  delivery  they  sprang  to  their 
feet  and  upon  the  benches  and  testified  by 
long-continued  shouts  and  the  waving  of  hats 
how  deeply  the  speaker  had  wrought  upon 
their  minds  and  hearts.  It  fused  the  mass  of 
hitherto  incongruous  elements  into  perfect 
homogeneity ;  and  from  that  day  to  the  present 
they  have  worked  together  in  harmonious  and 
fraternal  union.'  " 

Abraham  Lincoln,  by  Horace  White,  in 
Putnam's  and  The  Reader,  February,  1909. 

We  spoke  above  of  the  Cooper  Institute 
speech,  and  below  we  quote  from  Mr.  Choate, 
who  heard  that  speech,  a  description  which 


tributes  to  ^Lincoln  59 

leaves  the  reader  with  a  lively  sense  of  the 
profound  impression  Lincoln  produced  on 
that  momentous  occasion: 

A  GREAT  TRIUMPH 

"It  is  now  forty  years  since  I  first  saw  and 
heard  Abraham  Lincoln  but  the  impression 
which  he  left  on  my  mind  is  ineffaceable. 
After  his  great  successes  in  the  West  he  came 
to  New  York  to  make  a  political  address. 
He  appeared  in  every  sense  of  the  word  like 
one  of  the  plain  people  among  whom  he  loved 
to  be  counted.  At  first  sight  there  was  noth 
ing  impressive  or  imposing  about  him — except 
that  his  great  stature  singled  him  out  from 
the  crowd:  his  clothes  hung  awkwardly  on  his 
giant  frame;  his  face  was  of  a  dark  pallor, 
without  the  slightest  tinge  of  color;  his 
seamed  and  rugged  features  bore  the  furrows 
of  hardship  and  struggle;  his  deep-set  eyes 
looked  sad  and  anxious;  his  countenance  in 
repose  gave  little  evidence  of  that  brain 
power  which  had  raised  him  from  the  lowest 


60          Gbe  ^Lincoln  tribute  JBooft 

to  the  highest  station  among  his  countrymen ; 
as  he  talked  to  me  before  the  meeting,  he 
seemed  ill  at  ease,  with  that  sort  of  appre 
hension  which  a  young  man  might  feel  before 
presenting  himself  to  a  new  and  strange 
audience,  whose  critical  disposition  he 
dreaded.  It  was  a  great  audience,  including 
all  the  noted  men — all  the  learned  and  cul 
tured — of  his  party  in  New  York:  editors, 
clergymen,  statesmen,  lawyers,  merchants, 
critics.  They  were  all  very  curious  to  hear 
him.  His  fame  as  a  powerful  speaker  had 
preceded  him,  and  exaggerated  rumor  of  his 
wit — the  worst  forerunner  of  an  orator — had 
reached  the  East.  When  Mr.  Bryant  pre 
sented  him,  on  the  high  platform  of  the 
Cooper  Institute,  a  vast  sea  of  eager  upturned 
faces  greeted  him,  full  of  intense  curiosity  to 
see  what  this  rude  child  of  the  people  was 
like.  He  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  When 
he  spoke  he  was  transformed;  his  eye  kindled, 
his  voice  rang,  his  face  shone  and  seemed  to 
light  up  the  whole  assembly.  For  an  hour 
and  a  half  he  held  his  audience  in  the  hollow 


{Tributes  to  ^Lincoln  61 

of  his  hand.  His  style  of  speech  and  manner 
of  delivery  were  severely  simple.  What 
Lowell  called  "the  grand  simplicities  of  the 
Bible,"  with  which  he  was  so  familiar,  were 
reflected  in  his  discourse.  With  no  attempt 
at  ornament  or  rhetoric,  without  parade  or 
pretence,  he  spoke  straight  to  the  point.  If 
any  came  expecting  the  turgid  eloquence  or 
the  ribaldry  of  the  frontier,  they  must  have 
been  startled  at  the  earnest  and  sincere  purity 
of  his  utterances.  It  was  marvellous  to  see 
how  this  untutored  man,  by  mere  self-disci 
pline  and  the  chastening  of  his  own  spirit,  had 
outgrown  all  meretricious  arts,  and  found  his 
own  way  to  the  grandeur  and  strength  of 
absolute  simplicity. 

"  He  spoke  upon  the  theme  which  he  had 
mastered  so  thoroughly.  He  demonstrated 
by  copious  historical  proofs  and  masterly  logic 
that  the  fathers  who  created  the  Constitution 
in  order  to  form  a  more  perfect  union,  to 
establish  justice,  and  to  secure  the  blessings 
of  liberty  to  themselves  and  their  posterity, 
intended  to  empower  the  Federal  Government 


62          cbe  Xincoln  tribute  3Boofc 


to  exclude  slavery  from  the  Territories.  In 
the  kindliest  spirit  he  protested  against  the 
avowed  threat  of  the  Southern  States  to  de 
stroy  the  Union  if,  in  order  to  secure  freedom 
in  those  vast  regions  out  of  which  future 
States  were  to  be  carved,  a  Republican  Presi 
dent  were  elected.  He  closed  with  an  appeal 
to  his  audience,  spoken  with  all  the  fire  of  his 
aroused  and  kindling  conscience,  with  a  full 
outpouring  of  his  love  of  justice  and  liberty, 
to  maintain  their  political  purpose  on  that 
lofty  and  unassailable  issue  of  right  and  wrong 
which  alone  could  justify  it,  and  not  to  be  in 
timidated  from  their  high  resolve  and  sacred 
duty  by  any  threats  of  destruction  to  the 
government  or  of  ruin  to  themselves.  He 
concluded  with  this  telling  sentence,  which 
drove  the  whole  argument  home  to  all  our 
hearts:  'Let  us  have  faith  that  right  makes 
might,  and  in  that  faith  let  us  to  the  end 
dare  to  do  our  duty  as  we  understand  it.' 
That  night  the  great  hall,  and  the  next  day 
the  whole  city,  rang  with  delighted  applause 
and  congratulations,  and  he  who  had  come 


tributes  to  lincoln  63 

as  a  stranger  departed  with  the  laurels    of 
great  triumph.  " 

Joseph  H.  Choate,  in  The  Writings  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln,  vol.  i.,  pp.  99-101. 

Here  the  reader  may  be  glad  to  have  before 
him  the  brief  description  of  Lincoln's  outer 
man,  and  the  careful  sketch  of  Lincoln's 
character,  both  of  which  come  from  the  pen 
of  John  G.  Nicolay: 

PERSONAL  DESCRIPTION  AND  A 
CHARACTER  SKETCH 

"  Lincoln  was  of  unusual  stature,  six  feet 
four  inches,  and  of  spare  but  muscular  build; 
he  had  been  in  youth  remarkably  strong  and 
skilful  in  the  athletic  games  of  the  frontier, 
where,  however,  his  popularity  and  recog 
nized  impartiality  oftener  made  him  an  um 
pire  than  a  champion.  He  had  regular  and 
prepossessing  features,  dark  complexion, 
broad,  high  forehead,  prominent  cheek-bones, 
gray  deep-set  eyes,  and  bushy  black  hair, 
turning  to  gray  at  the  time  of  his  death. 
Abstemious  in  his  habits,  he  possessed  great 


64          Gbe  Xincoln  tribute  JBoofc 

physical  endurance.  He  was  almost  as 
tender-hearted  as  a  woman.  '  I  have  not 
willingly  planted  a  thorn  in  any  man's  bosom,' 
he  was  able  to  say.  His  patience  was  in 
exhaustible.  He  had  naturally  a  cheerful 
and  sunny  temper,  was  highly  social  and  sym 
pathetic,  loved  pleasant  conversation,  wit, 
anecdote,  and  laughter.  Beneath  this,  how 
ever,  ran  an  undercurrent  of  sadness;  he  was 
occasionally  subject  to  hours  of  deep  silence 
and  introspection  that  approached  a  condi 
tion  of  trance.  In  manner,  he  was  simple, 
direct,  void  of  the  least  affectation,  and  en 
tirely  free  from  awkwardness,  oddity,  or 
eccentricity.  His  mental  qualities  were — a 
quick  analytic  perception,  strong  logical 
powers,  a  tenacious  memory,  a  liberal  esti 
mate  and  tolerance  of  the  opinions  of  others, 
ready  intuition  of  human  nature;  and  perhaps 
his  most  valuable  faculty  was  rare  ability  to 
divest  himself  of  all  feeling  or  passion  in 
weighing  motives  of  person  or  problems  of 
state.  His  speech  and  diction  were  plain, 
terse,  forcible.  Relating  anecdotes  with  ap- 


iograpl 
:    vhis  pen-portrait, 
phic  representation 
n,  and  as  a  reading 
ten  upon  his  count( 
manner  and 


idercurrent  of  saV\ 
[abject  to  hours  of  \| 
;tion  that  approachef 
In  manner,  he  ^. 
kthe  least  affectatii 
awkwardnes 


{Tributes  to  Lincoln  65 

preciative  humor  and  fascinating  dramatic 
skill,  he  used  them  freely  and  effectively  in 
conversation  and  argument.  He  loved  man 
liness,  truth,  and  justice.  He  despised  all 
trickery  and  selfish  greed.  " 

Encyclop&dia  Britannica  (article  by  John 
G.  Nicolay),  vol.  xiv.,  p.  662,  New  York,  1882. 

From  an  English  biographer  of  the  Presi 
dent  we  take  this  pen-portrait,  remarkable 
alike  as  a  graphic  representation  of  the  outer 
man  of  Lincoln,  and  as  a  reading  of  the  moral 
meaning  written  upon  his  countenance,  and 
conveyed  by  his  manner  and  bearing: 

AN  ENGLISH  PEN-PORTRAIT  OF 
LINCOLN 

"English  journalists,  coming  to  Washington, 
found  Lincoln  not  so  much  homely  in  ap 
pearance,  as  positively  grotesque  and  un 
gainly.  He  seemed  to  them  the  actual  model 
from  which  the  national  stock  caricatures  of 
Brother  Jonathan  had  been  drawn.  This  note 
of  awkwardness  was  emphasized  by  the  official 
conditions  under  which  they  saw  him  at  some 
s 


66         Sbe  Xincoln  tribute  ffioofc 

public  audience,  when  he  was  painfully  con 
scious  of  his  own  peculiarities.  No  one  knows 
how  much  Lincoln  suffered  both  from  his 
clothes  and  from  critical  public  inspection 
on  these  occasions.  He  knew  that  to  his 
visitors  he  was  a  ridiculous-looking  President, 
with  abnormally  big  hands  swinging  at  the 
end  of  arms,  long  out  of  proportion,  and  feet 
which  were  correspondingly  uncompromising. 

"  The  apparent  size  of  his  extremities  was 
further  increased  by  his  boots  and  gloves 
which  were  always  too  large.  At  first  sight 
he  seemed  to  be  all  arms  and  legs.  His  thin 
stooping  body  was  covered  by  a  very  uncom 
fortable,  creased,  and  conscious  suit  of  black, 
which  could  never  really  adjust  itself  to  the 
corners  of  his  bony  frame;  while  out-of-doors, 
his  great  height  was  augmented  by  the  in 
evitable  top-hat.  He  wore  an  old  one  cov 
ered  with  crape. 

"But  it  was  the  head  and  face  which  most 
astonished  his  visitors.  It  seemed  to  them, 
perched  upon  the  summit  of  that  extra 
ordinarily  powerful  frame,  and  surrounded  by 


Granites  to  Xincoln  67 

dark  bristling  hair,  like  an  egg  in  a  magpie's 
nest.  Yet  small  though  it  seemed,  all  its 
ill-assorted  individual  features  were  large, 
from  the  ears  that  pushed  out  from  their  dark 
Republican  thatch,  to  the  nose  which  pro 
jected  so  prominently,  with  a  remarkable  air 
of  alertness,  originality,  force,  and  inde 
pendence,  from  his  face.  Largest  of  all,  the 
'straggling'  mouth,  mobile  and  powerful, 
alike  for  laughter  and  command,  and  for 
whatever  the  strange  spirit  of  the  man  might 
choose  to  utter.  But  it  was  the  eyes,  deep 
set  under  jutting  brows,  that  gave  his  face 
that  unforgettable  expression  so  difficult  to 
analyze,  which  belonged  to  his  very  soul. 
They  were  the  eyes  of  a  seer,  of  a  man  who 
was  not  to  be  deceived  by  the  passing  show, 
because  he  beheld  the  powers  and  principles 
that  move  behind  it,  and  they  were  the  eyes 
of  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief. 
For  the  rest,  his  jaw  was  long  and  square, 
and  his  chin  very  firm,  his  forehead  ran  back 
and  was  somewhat  narrow  but  high,  his 
cheeks  were  thin  and  creased  over  their 


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prominent  cheek-bones,  with  a  noticeable 
mole  above  the  right-hand  corner  of  the 
mouth  near  the  base  of  one  of  the  strongly 
marked  furrows,  and  the  whole  face  was 
bronzed  and  its  surface  scarred  in  all  directions 
as  though  eaten  'by  vitriol.' 

"  The  upper  lip  was  always  clean  shaven. 
The  beard  and  whiskers  being  newly  grown 
were  at  this  time  very  patchy  and  irregular; 
while  he  had  many  a  joke  against  his  un 
governable  head  of  hair.  'It  had  a  way  of 
getting  up  as  far  as  possible  in  the  world,' 
he  said;  and  he  used  to  tell  with  relish  how, 
after  his  nomination,  he  heard  a  boy  shout 
ing  his  portrait  through  the  streets,  adding, 
'will  look  better  when  he  has  had  his  hair 
combed.' 

"  Yet  even  on  such  public  occasions,  when 
Lincoln  was  least  at  home  with  himself,  the 
visitor  could  not  be  blind  to  the  moral 
strength,  an  inherent  spiritual  dignity,  of  the 
man  who  presented  so  awkward  a  figure. 
When  he  smiled,  his  whole  face  became 
suffused  with  the  attractive  beauty  of  his 


{Tributes  to  Xincoln  69 

inner  nature;  in  many  little  ways  he  revealed 
even  to  strangers  that  sympathetic  kindness 
of  heart  which  is  the  true  good-breeding;  and 
when  he  told  a  story  there  came  a  gleam  and 
sparkle  of  humor  into  his  eyes,  as  he  rubbed 
his  hand  down  his  long  thigh,  and  chuckled 
over  his  fun. 

"When  he  was  engrossed  in  serious  conver 
sation,  he  forgot  all  that  nervous  ungainliness 
of  which  we  have  heard  so  much.  His  atti 
tude  became,  instead,  one  of  unstudied  dignity 
without  any  trace  of  self-consciousness.  The 
same  loss  of  awkwardness  was  noticeable 
after  the  first  few  sentences  of  his  public 
utterances.  In  the  act  of  expressing  his 
convictions  he  sloughed  off  everything  in  his 
appearance  which  detracted  from  his  man 
hood  and  mastery,  and  revealed  himself  as 
worthy  of  the  truths  he  uttered  and  the  great 
office  entrusted  to  him." 

Abraham  Lincoln,  by  Henry  Bryan  Binns, 
pp.  223-226. 

No  one  who  is  studying  the  pen-portraits 


70          Cbe  Xincoln  tribute 


of   Lincoln   will    willingly   pass   by    that   by 
Herndon: 

HERNDON'S  PORTRAIT 

"  He  was  not  a  pretty  man  by  any  means, 
nor  was  he  an  ugly  one;  he  was  a  homely  man. 
careless  of  his  looks,  plain-looking  and  plain- 
acting.  He  had  no  pomp,  display,  or  dignity, 
so-called.  He  appeared  simple  in  his  carriage 
and  bearing.  He  was  a  sad-looking  man; 
his  melancholy  dripped  from  him  as  he 
walked.  His  apparent  gloom  impressed  his 
friends,  and  created  sympathy  for  him  —  one 
means  of  his  great  success.  He  was  gloomy, 
abstracted,  and  joyous  —  rather  humorous  — 
by  turns;  but  I  do  not  think  that  he  knew 
what  real  joy  was  for  many  years.  .  .  . 

"Thus,  I  repeat,  stood  and  walked  and  talked 
this  singular  man.  He  was  odd,  but  when 
that  gray  eye  and  that  face  and  those  features 
were  lit  up  by  the  inward  soul  in  fires  of 
emotion,  then  it  was  that  all  of  those  ap 
parently  ugly  features  sprang  into  the  organs 
of  beauty  or  disappeared  in  the  sea  of  inspira- 


{Tributes  to  ^Lincoln  71 

tion  that  often  flooded  his  face.  Sometimes 
it  appeared  as  if  Lincoln's  soul  was  fresh  from 
its  Creator.  " 

Herndon's  Li'ncoln,  by  William  H.  Herndon 
and  Jesse  W.  Weik,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  297,  299. 
Reprinted  by  permission  of  D.  Appleton  & 
Company. 

It  was  Lincoln's  boast  that  he  wished  to 
place  no  thorn  in  any  man's  bosom — and  that 
such  was  his  earnest  desire  his  whole  career 
bears  witness.  But  many  a  thorn  was  thrust 
into  his  own  bosom.  Not  his  least  pain  was 
causal  by  the  office-seekers. 

THE  BURDEN  OF  GREATNESS 

"It  is  difficult  for  anybody,  at  this  distance 
of  time,  and  when  all  things  are  at  peace 
throughout  the  republic,  to  realize  how  great 
was  the  burden  placed  upon  Lincoln  by  his 
election  to  the  presidency.  There  were  two 
great  troubles — the  office-seekers  and  the 
impending  war.  The  first  of  these,  of  course, 
was  the  smaller,  but  it  was  none  the  less  a 
grievous  trial.  For,  in  addition  to  the  strain 


72          abe  Xincoln  tribute  3Boofc 

that  it  brought  upon  his  patience,  it  inter 
fered  very  seriously  with  his  attempt  to  think 
over  the  greater  and  far  more  trying  ques 
tions  that  must  soon  be  settled.  Lincoln  was 
good-natured,  patient,  kind,  desirous  of 
doing  whatever  was  asked  of  him,  in  reason. 
It  was  always  irksome  for  him  to  refuse  a 
favor,  even  when  the  petitioner  was  not 
altogether  reasonable  or  deserving.  He  dis 
liked  to  refer  applicants  to  others,  his  sub 
ordinates.  He  never  turned  a  deaf  ear  to 
any  petitioner,  however  humble,  however 
importunate.  It  was  truly  said  of  him  that 
his  patience  was  almost  infinite.  It  is  easy 
to  see,  therefore,  how  difficult  it  was  for  his 
immediate  friends  to  protect  him  from  the 
incursions  of  curiosity-seeking  and  office- 
seeking  visitors,  then  and  afterwards." 

Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  Downfall  of 
American  Slavery,  by  Noah  Brooks,  pp.  204- 
205,  New  York,  1908. 


Upon  Lincoln  were  heaped  blame  and  praise 
unmeasured : 


tributes  to  Ztncoln  73 

DETRACTION  AND  EULOGY 

"  During  his  brief  term  of  power  he  was 
probably  the  object  of  more  abuse,  vilification, 
and  ridicule  than  any  other  man  in  the  world ; 
but  when  he  fell  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin, 
at  the  very  moment  of  his  stupendous  victory, 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth  vied  with  one 
another  in  paying  homage  to  his  character, 
and  the  thirty-five  years  that  have  since 
elapsed  have  established  his  place  in  history 
as  one  of  the  great  benefactors  not  of  his  own 
country  alone,  but  of  the  human  race.  .  .  . 

"  Fiction  can  furnish  no  match  for  the  ro 
mance  of  his  life,  and  biography  will  be 
searched  in  vain  for  such  startling  vicissi 
tudes  of  fortune,  so  great  power  and  glory 
won  out  of  such  humble  beginnings  and  ad 
verse  circumstances.  .  .  . 

"In  the  zenith  of  his  fame  he  was  the  wise, 
patient,  courageous,  successful  ruler  of  men; 
exercising  more  power  than  any  monarch  of 
his  time,  not  for  himself,  but  for  the  good 
of  the  people  who  had  placed  it  in  his  hands; 


74          ZTbe  Lincoln  tribute 


commander-in-chief  of  a  vast  military  power, 
which  waged  with  ultimate  success  the  great 
est  war  of  the  century;  the  triumphant  cham 
pion  of  popular  government,  the  deliverer 
of  four  millions  of  his  fellow-men  from  bond 
age;  honored  by  mankind  as  Statesman, 
President,  and  Liberator." 

Reprinted,  with  the  permission  of  the 
author  and  T.  Y.  Crowell  &  Company,  from 
Joseph  H.  Choate's  Abraham  Lincoln  in  The 
Writings  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  vol.  i.,  pp.  81-82. 

For  all  Lincoln's  frank  dealing  with  the 
world  in  general,  there  was  about  him,  in  the 
depths  of  his  nature,  an  impenetrable  reserve. 
No  man  easily  plucked  out  the  heart  of  his 
mystery.  Seemingly  incompatible  qualities, 
that  were  none  the  less  blended  harmoniously, 
baffled  the  analyst. 

THE  HEART  OF  THIS  MYSTERY 

"I  referred  at  the  beginning  of  this  volume 
to  the  fascination  of  Lincoln's  personality. 
That  fascination  arises,  as  I  think,  from  a  sort 
of  contradiction  or  paradox  of  which  one  is 


tributes  to  Xincoln  75 

always  sensible  whenever  one  touches  it.  It 
often  reminds  one  of  Dickens,  in  whom,  to 
quote  his  latest  biographer,  uncommon  sensi 
bility  was  mixed  with  common  sense.  But 
Lincoln's  is  not  only  one  of  those  tragi-comic 
characters  which  are  in  themselves  so  rich  in 
human  suggestion;  it  is,  besides,  that  of  a 
logician  who  was  never  able  to  divorce  his 
reasoning  faculty  from  his  humanity.  In  a 
word,  he  was  a  man  in  whom  the  contradictions 
of  lesser  types  were  reconciled  but  not  wholly 
obliterated.  And  it  is  the  men  who  have,  as 
it  were,  stretched  our  human  nature  to  in 
clude  in  their  one  personality  elements  we 
have  by  common  consent  regarded  hitherto 
as  incompatible,  that  attract  and  hold  our 
attention.  It  is  not  merely  that  Lincoln,  born 
in  a  log  cabin,  became  the  autocrat  of  the 
White  House;  such  a  story  was  not  unpre 
cedented  in  America;  it  is  a  recurring  ro 
mance  all  through  history;  it  is  not  even  that 
the  uncrowned  ruler  of  a  continent,  whose  eyes 
beheld  as  in  a  mystical  vision  the  Union  of  its 
States,  should  finish  a  conversation  sitting 


76          Gbe  ^Lincoln  tribute 


nonchalantly  on  some  door-step  in  his  capital, 
or  should  turn  immediately  from  the  crackling 
pages  of  a  second-rate  humorist  to  that 
which  he  regarded  as  the  most  sacred  and 
solemn  act  of  his  life.  It  is  not  these  striking 
but  superficial  anomalies  which  hold  us  as  we 
consider  the  man,  but  something  always  more 
subtle,  essential,  and  inexplicable.  He  had 
imbibed  the  spirit  of  action,  he  had  lived  in 
its  atmosphere  all  his  days,  and  yet  stood 
always  as  it  were  a  step  or  two  aloof  from  it. 
He  always  loafed  a  little,  even  in  the  press  of 
affairs,  not  only  that  he  might  reason  with 
himself  about  causes  and  results,  but  often 
that  he  might  recall  a  story  illustrating  some 
aspect  of  events,  which  seemed  to  others 
trivial  or  irrelevant.  Almost  diffuse  in  his 
emotionality,  he  was  perhaps  the  most  cau 
tious  man  of  his  time.  Nearly  always  pleasant 
and  ready  to  converse,  without  the  appear 
ance  of  secretiveness,  and  often  saying  '  help 
lessly  natural  and  naive  things,'  as  astute 
critics  observed;  there  was  yet  none  of  his 
critics,  not  even  of  his  intimates,  who  fathomed 


{Tributes  to  Xincoln  77 

the  President's  reserve,  which  was  deeper  than 
a  well." 

Abraham  Lincoln,  by  Henry  Bryan  Binns, 
pp.  356-357,  E.  P.  Button  &  Company. 

Lincoln's  obliging  readiness  in  yielding  to 
the  wishes  of  others  in  matters  unimportant 
or  unessential  created  the  impression  in  some 
quarters  that  the  President  was  not  the  master 
in  his  own  official  household,  though  that 
household  itself  was  not  long  in  doubt  upon 
the  question. 

LINCOLN     AND     SEWARD— LINCOLN'S 
MASTERY 

' '  Upon  this  testimony  and  more  like  it, 
throughout  Mr.  Welles's  monograph,  we  infer 
that  the  Secretary  of  State — appearances  to 
the  contrary  notwithstanding — must  have 
stepped  back  to  the  place  so  firmly  yet 
courteously  pointed  out  by  the  President,  in 
the  little  private  interlude  which  closed  their 
first  four  weeks  of  office.  From  that  time 
to  the  end,  Seward  knew  Lincoln  to  be  his 


78          Cbe  Lincoln  tribute  JBoofc 

master.  With  a  grace  peculiarly  his  own,  the 
Secretary  adapted  himself  to  this  unexpected 
development.  His  every  action  seemed  to 
say,  as  did  the  fair  penitent  of  the  house  of 
Capulet : 

'Pardon,  I  beseech  you! 
Henceforward  I  am  ever  ruled  by  you.' 

"  When  his  inclinations  or  purposes  con 
flicted  with  those  of  his  chief,  he  gave  way — 
nay,  more,  he  put  forth  all  his  powers  to 
carry  out  Mr.  Lincoln's  wishes.  'There  is 
but  one  vote  in  the  Cabinet,'  the  minister  once 
declared,  '  and  that  is  cast  by  the  President.'  " 

Lincoln,  Master  of  Men,  by  Alonzo  Roths 
child,  pp.  150-151,  Houghton,  Mifflin,  & 
Company,  Boston  and  New  York,  1908. 

The  least  obstinate  or  self-opinionated  of 
men,  Lincoln  knew,  as  we  have  said  before, 
the  art  of  bending  where  no  principle  called 
for  inflexibility.  But  he  was  also  a  man  of 
iron,  a  commander  whose  orders  were  obeyed 
— "  the  most  perfect  ruler  of  men,"  Stanton 


tributes  to  Lincoln  79 

would  have  it,  "the  world  has  ever  seen." 
General  Ulysses  S.  Grant  said  of  Lincoln  as  a 
leader: 

GRANT'S  SPLENDID  TRIBUTE 

"  '  He  might  appear  to  go  Seward's  way  one 
day,'  Grant  said  in  reviewing  Lincoln's 
leadership,  'and  Stanton's  another;  but  all 
the  time  he  was  going  his  own  course  and  they 
with  him.' 

"  '  He  was  incontestably  the  greatest  man  I 
ever  knew,'  is  Grant's  estimate  of  him,  while 
Sherman  said :  '  Of  all  the  men  I  ever  met  he 
seemed  to  possess  more  of  the  elements  of 
greatness  combined  with  goodness  than  any 
other.'  " 

Abraham  Lincoln — the  Boy  and  the  Alan, 
by  James  Morgan,  pp.  332,  333,  and  354,  The 
Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1908. 

No  man's  words  and  bearing  and  coun 
tenance,  it  would  seem,  have  ever  carried 
with  them  a  clearer  assurance  of  honesty  than 


8o         abe  ^Lincoln  tribute  JBooft 

Abraham  Lincoln's — "honest  old  Abe"  as  he 
was  nicknamed.  Even  the  casual  observer 
never  failed  to  note  it.  Herndon  was,  of 
course,  not  one  of  these,  but  he  voices  the 
impression  of  all. 

THE  HONESTY  OF  LINCOLN 

"His  pursuit  of  truth,  as  before  mentioned, 
was  indefatigable.  He  reasoned  from  well- 
chosen  principles  with  such  clearness,  force, 
and  directness  that  the  tallest  intellects  in 
the  land  bowed  to  him.  He  was  the  strongest 
man  I  ever  saw,  looking  at  him  from  the 
elevated  standpoint  of  reason  and  logic.  He 
came  down  from  that  height  with  irresistible 
and  crashing  force.  His  Cooper  Institute 
and  other  printed  speeches  will  prove  this; 
but  his  speeches  before  the  courts — especially 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois — if  they  had 
been  preserved,  would  demonstrate  it  still 
more  plainly.  Here  he  demanded  time  to 
think  and  prepare.  The  office  of  reason  is 
to  determine  the  truth.  Truth  is  the  power 


tributes  to  OLincoln  81 

of  reason,  and  Lincoln  loved  truth  for  its  own 
sake.  It  was  to  him  reason's  food. 

"Conscience,  the  second  great  quality  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  character,  is  that  faculty  which 
induces  in  us  love  of  the  just.  Its  real  office 
is  justice;  right  and  equity  are  its  correla 
tives.  As  a  court,  it  is  in  session  continuously ; 
it  decides  all  acts  at  all  times.  Mr.  Lincoln 
had  a  deep,  broad,  living  conscience.  His 
reason,  however,  was  the  real  judge;  it  told 
him  what  was  true  or  false,  and  therefore 
good  or  bad,  right  or  wrong,  just  or  unjust, 
and  his  conscience  echoed  back  the  decision. 
His  conscience  ruled  his  heart;  he  was  always 
just  before  he  was  generous.  It  cannot  be 
said  of  any  mortal  that  he  was  always  abso 
lutely  just.  Neither  was  Lincoln  always  just; 
but  his  general  life  was.  It  follows  that  if  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  great  reason  and  great  con 
science  he  must  have  been  an  honest  man; 
and  so  he  was.  He  was  rightfully  entitled  to 
the  appellation  'Honest  Abe.'  Honesty  was 
his  polar  star." 

Reprinted  from  Herndon's  Lincoln,  vol.  ii., 

6 


82          £be  Lincoln  {Tribute  3Boofc 

pp.  307—308,  by  permission   of  D.  Appleton 
&  Company,  New  York,   1908. 

Among  the  qualities  that  made  Lincoln  a 
master  of  men,  tact  was  conspicuous;  and 
it  accomplished  marvels.  Horace  Greeley 
had  it  in  mind  when  he  said  that,  if  he  went 
again  to  Washington,  he  would  not  cross  the 
threshold  of  the  White  House,  because  "the 
President  wound  him  round  his  finger." 
This  quality  made  Lincoln  many  friends. 
Mr.  Frederick  Trevor  Hill  refers  to  it  in  the 
following  description  of  Lincoln's  relation  to 
his  colleagues  of  the  Illinois  Bar: 

LINCOLN'S  TACT 

"The  sharp,  personal  collisions  inevitable 
in  litigation  bruise  and  jar  the  contestants, 
no  matter  how  hardened  they  may  be,  and  the 
man  who  emerges  from  the  fray  with  no  preju 
dice  against  his  opponent  and  without  having 
given  the  least  offence  possesses  a  remarkable 
temperament — and  such  a  man  was  Abraham 
Lincoln.  He  knew  how  to  try  a  case  without 
making  it  a  personal  issue  between  counsel. 


(Tributes  to  Xincoln  83 

He  could  utter  effective  replies  without  in 
sulting  his  opponent,  and  during  all  his  prac 
tice  he  never  made  an  enemy  in  the  ranks  of 
his  profession.  No  one  but  a  lawyer  can 
appreciate  what  this  means;  but  it  requires 
generosity,  patience,  tact,  courtesy,  firmness, 
courage,  self-control,  and  a  big-mindedness 
which  few  men  possess.  Yet,  day  after  day, 
and  year  after  year,  Lincoln  met  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  lawyers  at  a  time  when  they 
were  all  young,  ambitious,  and  keen  to  suc 
ceed,  without  embittering  any  one  or  for 
feiting  his  self-respect.  Not  many  members 
of  his  profession  can  show  an  equal  record; 
certainly  none  of  the  Springfield  Bar  has  left 
a  similar  reputation." 

Lincoln  the  Lawyer,  by  Frederick  Trevor  Hill, 
p.  109,  The  Century  Co.,  New  York,  1906. 

Lincoln  subscribed  to  no  creed,  but  by  his 
serious  and  reverent  attitude  toward  life, 
and  by  his  trust  in  a  righteous  overruling 
Providence,  he  was  essentially  and  profoundly 
religious.  John  G.  Nicolay,  whose  privilege 


84          tlbe  ^Lincoln  tribute  JBoofc 

It  was  to  know  the  President  long  and  inti 
mately,  says: 

A    PROFOUNDLY    RELIGIOUS    SPIRIT 

"  Benevolence  and  forgiveness  were  the  very 
basis  of  his  character;  his  world-wide  human 
ity  is  aptly  embodied  in  a  phrase  of  his  second 
inaugural :  '  With  malice  toward  none,  with 
charity  for  all.'  His  nature  was  deeply  re 
ligious  but  he  belonged  to  no  denomination; 
he  had  faith  in  the  eternal  justice  and  bound 
less  mercy  of  Providence,  and  made  the  golden 
rule  of  Christ  his  practical  creed." 

Encyclopedia  Britannica,  vol.  xii.,  p.  662. 

President  Roosevelt  has  said  many  things 
in  Lincoln's  honor,  and  from  them  we  take, 
first,  a  passage  in  which  he  singles  out  for 
admiration  his  devotion  to  an  ideal  and  his 
readiness  to  take  half  a  loaf  of  good  bread 
rather  than  none: 

A  PRACTICAL  IDEALIST 
PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT'S  TRIBUTE 
"Throughout  his  entire  life,  and  especially 


{Tributes  to  Xincoln  85 

after  he  rose  to  leadership  in  his  party,  Lincoln 
was  stirred  to  his  depths  by  the  sense  of  fealty 
to  a  lofty  ideal ;  but  throughout  his  entire  life 
he  also  accepted  human  nature  as  it  is,  and 
worked  with  keen,  practical  good  sense  to 
achieve  results  with  the  instruments  at  hand. 
It  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  a  man  farther 
removed  from  baseness,  farther  removed  from 
corruption,  from  mere  self-seeking;  but  it  is 
also  impossible  to  conceive  of  a  man  of  more 
sane  and  healthy  mind — a  man  less  under  the 
influence  of  that  fantastic  and  diseased 
morality  (so  fantastic  and  diseased  as  to  be  in 
reality  profoundly  immoral)  which  makes  a 
man  in  this  work-a-day  world  refuse  to  do 
what  is  possible  because  he  cannot  accom 
plish  the  impossible." 

Theodore  Roosevelt  in  The  Writings  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  pp.  v.-vi.,  New  York, 
1905. 

Herndon  is,  perhaps,  a  trifle  prone  to  split 
hairs  when  he  discusses  Lincoln's  humanity: 
his  questions  in  regard  to  what  is  meant  by 
humanity  are  somewhat  beside  the  point. 


86         Gbe  Lincoln  tribute 


No  one  supposes,  as  he  seems  to  suggest,  that 
humanity  involves  sacrificing  truth  or  right 
for  the  love  of  a  friend.  Men  may,  indeed, 
regard  others  as  inhumane  who  have  refused 
to  sacrifice  truth  or  right  for  love  of  them, 
but  in  the  abstract  and  as  a  general  proposi 
tion  they  know  that  such  sacrifice  is  not 
humanity  but  partiality,  that  love  of  truth 
and  right  is  in  reality  nothing  more  than  the 
expression  of  a  broad  humanity. 

However  this  may  be,  he  has  paid  a  splendid 
tribute  to  his  great  chief  in  the  following 
passage  : 

THE  QUESTION  OF  HUMANITY 

"'  But  was  not  Mr.  Lincoln  a  man  of  great 
humanity?'  asks  a  friend  at  my  elbow;  to 
which  I  reply,  '  Has  not  that  question  been 
answered  already?'  Let  us  suppose  it  has 
not.  We  must  understand  each  other. 
What  is  meant  by  humanity?  Is  it  meant 
that  he  had  much  of  human  nature  in  him? 
If  so,  I  grant  that  he  was  a  man  of  humanity. 
If,  in  the  event  of  the  above  definition  being 


tributes  to  Lincoln  87 

unsatisfactory  or  untrue,  it  is  meant  that  he 
was  tender  and  kind,  then  I  again  agree. 
But  if  the  inference  is  that  he  would  sacrifice 
truth  or  right  in  the  slightest  degree  for  the 
love  of  a  friend,  then  he  was  neither  tender 
nor  kind;  nor  did  he  have  any  humanity. 
The  law  of  human  nature  is  such  that  it 
cannot  be  all  head,  all  conscience,  and  all 
heart  in  one  person  at  the  same  time.  Our 
Maker  so  constituted  things  that,  where  God 
through  reason  blazed  the  way,  we  might 
boldly  walk  therein.  The  glory  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  power  lay  in  the  just  and  magnificent 
equipoise  of  head,  conscience,  and  heart;  and 
here  his  fame  must  rest  or  not  at  all. 

"  Not  only  were  Mr.  Lincoln's  perceptions 
good;  not  only  was  nature  suggestive  to  him; 
not  only  was  he  original  and  strong;  not 
only  had  he  great  reason,  good  understanding; 
not  only  did  he  love  the  true  and  the  good — 
the  eternal  right;  not  only  was  he  tender, 
sympathetic,  and  kind; — but,  in  due  propor 
tion  and  in  legitimate  subordination,  he  had 
a  glorious  combination  of  them  all. 


88          Gbe  Xincoln  {Tribute  JBoofc 

"Through  his  perceptions — the  suggestive- 
ness  of  nature,  his  originality  and  strength; 
through  his  magnificent  reason,  his  under 
standing,  his  conscience,  his  tenderness,  quick 
sympathy,  his  heart;  he  approximated,  as 
nearly  as  human  nature  and  the  imperfec 
tions  of  man  would  permit,  to  an  embodi 
ment  of  the  great  moral  principle,  '  Do  unto 
others  as  ye  would  they  should  do  unto  you.'  " 

Reprinted  from  Hcrndon's  Lincoln,  vol.  ii., 

Sp.  311-312,  by  permission  of  D.  Appleton  & 
ompany. 

Lincoln's  crowning  and  unique  virtue,  the 
master- trait  of  his  character,  that  by  which 
he  is  the  equal,  if  not  the  superior,  of  any 
man  in  history,  is  magnanimity.  This  virtue 
prompted  him  to  banish  from  his  nature 
malice  and  envy,  and  all  the  shabby  company 
that  follows  in  their  train.  It  took  form  in 
many  a  shining  act,  and  is  well  exemplified 
in  this  incident: 

LINCOLN'S  MAGNANIMITY 

"Upon  the  second  day  of  the  decisive  bat- 


(Tributes  to  Lincoln  89 

tie  of  Gettysburg,  President  Lincoln  wrote  an 
official  order  as  Commander-in-Chief  to  Gen 
eral  Meade,  the  Union  commander,  directing 
him  to  intercept  Lee's  retreat  and  give  him 
another  battle.  The  general  had  been  in 
command  of  the  army  but  five  or  six  days, 
and  as  his  predecessors  had  been  much  criti 
cised  for  failures,  the  President  knew  he  would 
be  cautious  about  risking  a  battle  after  having 
gained  one.  He  sent  the  order  by  a  special 
messenger,  with  a  private  note  saying  that 
this  seemed  to  him  to  be  the  thing  to  do,  but 
that  he  would  leave  it  to  the  ultimate  decision 
of  the  military  commander  on  the  ground. 
The  official  order  was  not  a  matter  of  record, 
and,  he  said,  need  not  be.  If  Meade  would 
undertake  the  movement,  and  it  was  success 
ful,  he  need  say  nothing  about  it.  If  it 
failed,  he  could  publish  the  order  immedi 
ately.  In  other  words:  'Go  ahead.  Make 
an  heroic  attempt  to  annihilate  that  army 
in  its  disheartened  state  and  before  it 
can  recross  the  river.  If  the  attempt  suc 
ceeds,  you  take  the  glory  of  it;  and  if 


90          abe  ^Lincoln  tribute  JBoofc 

it    fails    I    will    take    the    responsibility     of 
it.'  " 

Lincoln  Centenary,  p.  27,  Albany,  1909. 

Through  the  fiery  ordeal  of  the  War  it  was 
the  sense  of  the  sure  support  of  the  plain 
people  that,  more  than  aught  else  perhaps, 
sustained  and  comforted  Lincoln's  spirit. 
Of  his  belief  in  the  plain  people,  and  of  their 
steadfast  faith  in  him,  Mr.  Choate  says: 

LINCOLN    AND    THE    PLAIN    PEOPLE 

"In  all  the  grandeur  of  the  vast  power  that 
he  wielded,  he  never  ceased  to  be  one  of  the 
plain  people,  as  he  always  called  them,  never 
lost  or  impaired  his  perfect  sympathy  with 
them,  was  always  in  perfect  touch  with  them 
and  open  to  their  appeals;  and  here  lay  the 
very  secret  of  his  personality  and  of  his  power, 
for  the  people  in  turn  gave  him  their  absolute 
confidence.  His  courage,  his  fortitude,  his 
patience,  his  hopefulness,  were  sorely  tried 
but  never  exhausted." 

Joseph  H.  Choate  in  The  Writings  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln,  vol.  i.,  p.  104.  Reprinted  with 


{Tributes  to  Xincoln  91 

the    permission    of    the    author   and    T.    Y. 
Crowell  &  Company. 

And  of  the  same  purport  are  these  words 
of  Carl  Schurz: 

"  They  looked  to  him  as  one  who  was  with 
them  and  of  them  in  all  their  hopes  and  fears, 
their  joys  and  sorrows, — who  laughed  with 
them  and  wept  with  them;  and  as  his  heart 
was  theirs,  so  their  hearts  turned  to  him.  His 
popularity  was  far  different  from  that  of 
Washington,  who  was  revered  with  awe,  or 
that  of  Jackson,  the  unconquerable  hero, 
for  whom  party  enthusiasm  never  grew  weary 
of  shouting.  To  Abraham  Lincoln  the 
people  became  bound  by  a  genuine  sentimen 
tal  attachment.  It  was  not  a  matter  of  re 
spect,  or  confidence,  or  party  pride,  for  this 
feeling  spread  far  beyond  the  boundary  lines 
of  his  party;  it  was  an  affair  of  the  heart, 
independent  of  mere  reasoning.  When  the 
soldiers  in  the  field  or  their  folks  at  home  spoke 
of  '  Father  Abraham,'  there  was  no  cant  in  it. 
They  felt  that  their  President  was  really  caring 


92          Gbe  Xincoln  actbute  JSoofc 

for  them  as  a  father  would,  and  that  they 
could  go  to  him,  every  one  of  them. as  they 
would  go  to  a  father,  and  talk  to  him  of  what 
troubled  them,  sure  to  find  a  willing  ear  and 
tender  sympathy.  Thus  their  President,  and 
his  cause,  and  his  endeavors,  and  his  success 
gradually  became  to  them  almost  matters 
of  family  concern.  And  this  popularity  car 
ried  him  triumphantly  through  the  Presiden 
tial  election  of  1864,  in  spite  of  an  opposition 
within  his  own  party  which  at  first  seemed 
very  formidable." 

Carl  Schurz  -in  The  Writings  of  Abraham 
Lincoln^  vol.  i.,  60-6 1.  Reprinted  with  the 
permission  of  Houghton,  Mifnin,  &  Company. 

To  William  Lloyd  Garrison  and  his  band 
of  idealists  who  had  long  crusaded  for  the 
abolition  of  slavery  the  Emancipation  Procla 
mation  was  a  great  triumph.  At  last  the 
idea  had  come  to  its  own : 

EMANCIPATION 

"  Ideas  rule  the  world,  and  never  was  there 
a  more  signal  instance  of  this  triumph  of  an 


{Tributes  to  Xincoln  93 

idea  than  here.  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  who 
thirty  years  before  had  begun  his  crusade  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  had  lived  to  see 
this  glorious  and  unexpected  consummation 
of  the  hopeless  cause  to  which  he  had  devoted 
his  life,  well  described  the  proclamation  as  a 
'great  historic  event,  sublime  in  its  magni 
tude,  momentous  and  beneficent  in  its  far- 
reaching  consequences,  and  eminently  just 
and  right  alike  to  the  oppressor  and  the 
oppressed.'  " 

Joseph  H.  Choate  in  The  Writings  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  vol.  i.,  p.  107.  Reprinted  with  the 
permission  of  the  author  and  T.  Y.  Crowell 
&  Company. 

The  solution  of  no  problem  can  be  conclu 
sive  into  which  prejudice  has  entered,  and 
there  are  few  problems  into  which  prejudice 
is  more  likely  to  enter  than  those  which  arise 
from  the  intercourse  of  different  races.  To  us, 
therefore,  who  have  our  share  of  such  prob 
lems,  nothing  can  be  more  appropriate  than 
to  recall  the  attitude  of  our  great  President 
whose  sympathies  were  large  enough  to 


94          ttbe  Xincoln  tribute 


include  all  colors  and  all  creeds.  Frederick 
Douglass  the  colored  orator  says  of  the 
breadth  of  Lincoln's  sympathies: 

FREDERICK    DOUGLASS   ON   LINCOLN 

"  In  all  my  interviews  with  Mr.  Lincoln  I 
was  impressed  with  his  entire  freedom  from 
popular  prejudice  against  the  colored  race. 
He  was  the  first  great  man  that  I  talked  with 
in  the  United  States,  who  in  no  single  instance 
reminded  me  of  the  difference  between  him 
self  and  myself,  or  the  difference  of  color, 
and  I  thought  that  all  the  more  remarkable 
because  he  came  from  a  State  where  there 
are  black  laws.  I  account  partially  for  his 
kindness  to  me  because  of  the  similarity 
with  which  I  had  fought  my  way  up,  we  both 
starting  at  the  lowest  round  of  the  ladder.  .  .  . 

"There  was  one  thing  concerning  Lincoln 
that  I  was  impressed  with,  and  that  was  that 
a  statement  of  his  was  an  argument  more 
convincing  than  any  amount  of  logic.  He 
had  a  happy  faculty  for  stating  a  proposition, 
of  stating  it  so  that  it  needed  no  argument. 


{Tributes  to  Xincoln  95 

It  was  a  rough  kind  of  reasoning,  but  it  went 
right  to  the  point.  Then,  too,  there  was 
another  feeling  that  I  had  with  reference  to 
him,  and  that  was  that  while  I  felt  in  his  pres 
ence  I  was  in  the  presence  of  a  very  great 
man,  as  great  as  the  greatest,  I  felt  as  though 
I  could  go  and  put  my  hand  on  him  if  I 
wanted  to,  to  put  my  hand  on  his  shoulder. 
Of  course  I  did  not  do  it,  but  I  felt  that  I 
could.  I  felt  as  though  I  was  in  the  presence 
of  a  big  brother,  and  that  there  was  safety  in 
his  atmosphere." 

Reminiscences  of  Abraham  Lincoln  by  Dis 
tinguished  Men  of  His  Time,  pp.  193-195, 
New  York,  1886. 


Out  of  the  South  comes  this  voice  in  Lin 
coln's  praise.  The  speaker  is  a  colored 
man  of  distinction.  It  will  be  noted  that 
he  endows  the  Emancipator  with  all  the 
virtues  of  the  negro  race.  Surely  there  are 
those  with  a  bent  for  affirmation  who  will 
answer  in  the  affirmative  the  rhetorical 
question  with  which  the  quotation  closes. 


g6          Cbe  Xincoln  tribute  JBoofc 

A  HIGHLY  COLORED  TRIBUTE 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  was,  in  truth,  a  great  and  good 
man;  the  man  not  only  for  his  time,  but  for 
the  colored  people.  It  has  occurred  to  a 
distinguished  correspondent  of  mine,  Senator 
Hoar,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  many  traits  for 
which  the  colored  people  are  noted.  Among 
these  traits  were  a  sweetness  of  disposition, 
great  patience  of  the  wrong ;  he  had  no  memory 
for  injustice;  was  forgiving;  was  ready  to  wait 
for  the  slow  processes  by  which  God  accom 
plishes  great  and  permanent  blessings  for 
mankind. 

"  Like  the  Negro,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  born  in  a 
hovel.  He  had  to  labor  incessantly  for  his 
daily  bread.  His  educational  advantages 
were  the  poorest.  He  had  scarcely  a  year's 
schooling.  He  was  deprived  of  books.  The 
Bible,  Pilgrim's  Progress,  Life  of  Washing 
ton,  Robinson  Crusoe,  and  JEsop 's  Fables 
were  the  books  to  which  he  owed  most. 
His  early  narrow  escapes  showed  that  he 
was  a  providential  man.  With  all  this, 


tributes  to  ^Lincoln  97 

Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  sense  was  deep  and 
pervading.  The  very  biography  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  struggles  for  bread,  for  clothes,  for 
money,  and  for  '  a  little  learning '  reads  so 
much  like  the  story  of  some  Negro  battling 
against  adversity.  Had  Mr.  Lincoln  been  a 
member  of  the  Negro  race  it  is  doubtful  if 
he  would  have  outstripped  Frederick  Douglass 
in  the  race  of  life.  May  it  not  be  stated  that 
the  two  typical  Americans  are  Abraham 
Lincoln  and  Frederick  Douglass?  " 

R.  R.  Wright,  President  of  Georgia  State 
Industrial  College,  in  Abraham.  Lincoln: 
Tributes  from  his  Associates,  pp.  185—186, 
New  York  and  Boston,  1895. 

In  a  little  book — excellently  written  and 
full  of  insight  it  is — the  author,  an  Alabaman, 
Mr.  William  Garrott  Brown,  speaks  hand 
somely  of  Lincoln  in  a  comparison  between 
him  and  his  popularly  rhetorical  rival,  Stephen 
A.  Douglas: 

A  SOUTHERNER'S  PRAISE 

"  Slower  of  growth  and  devoid  altogether  of 
7 


98          abe  Xincoln  {Tribute  JSoofc 

many  brilliant  qualities  which  his  rival  pos 
sessed,  Lincoln  nevertheless  outreached  him 
by  the  measure  of  the  two  gifts  the  other 
lacked:  the  twin  gifts  of  humor  and  brooding 
melancholy.  Bottomed  by  the  one  in  home 
liness,  his  character  was  by  the  other  drawn 
upward  to  the  height  of  human  nobility  and 
aspiration.  His  great  capacity  of  pain, 
which  but  for  his  buffoonery  would  no  doubt 
have  made  him  mad,  was  the  source  of  his 
rarest  excellences.  Familiar  with  squalor, 
and  hospitable  to  vulgarity,  his  mind  was 
yet  tenanted  by  sorrow,  a  place  of  midnight 
wrestlings.  In  him,  as  never  before  in  any 
other  man,  were  high  and  low  things  mated, 
and  awkwardness  and  ungainliness  and  un- 
couthness  justified  in  their  uses.  At  once 
coarser  than  his  rival  and  infinitely  more  re 
fined  and  gentle,  he  had  mastered  lessons 
which  the  other  had  never  found  the  need  of 
learning,  or  else  had  learned  too  readily  and 
then  dismissed.  He  had  thoroughness,  for 
the  other's  competence;  insight  into  human 
nature,  and  a  vast  sympathy,  for  the  other's 


{Tributes  to  ^Lincoln  99 

facile  handling  of  men;  a  deep  devotion  to  the 
right,  for  the  other's  loyalty,  to  party  plat 
forms.  The  very  core  of  his  nature  was  truth, 
and  he  himself  is  reported  to  have  said  of 
Douglas  that  he  cared  less  for  the  truth,  as 
the  truth,  than  any  other  man  he  knew.  .  .  . 
"  We  cannot  turn  from  him  [Douglas]  to  his 
rival  but  with  changed  and  softened  eyes. 
For  Lincoln,  indeed,  is  one  of  the  few  men 
eminent  in  politics  whom  we  admit  into  the 
hidden  places  of  our  thought;  and  there, 
released  from  that  coarse  clay  which  prisoned 
him,  we  companion  him  forever  with  the 
gentle  and  heroic  of  older  lands.  Douglas 
abides  without." 

Stephen  Arnold  Douglas,  William  Garrott 
Brown,  pp.  114,  115,  141,  Houghton,  Mimin, 
&  Company,  1902. 

Lincoln's  practicality  has  often  been  insisted 
upon,  but  to  his  contemporaries  he  did  not 
by  any  means  always  appear  practical.  His 
mercy  to  those  condemned  to  punishment 
seemed  to  them  to  be  subversive  of  discipline, 


ioo        ZTbe  ^Lincoln  {Tribute  3Boofc 

a  weakness  verging  on  sentimentality,  rather 
than  a  strength.  The  world,  however,  has 
judged  differently. 

PITY  AND  TENDERNESS 

"  He  was  tender-hearted  to  a  fault,  and  never 
could  resist  the  appeals  of  wives  and  mothers 
of  soldiers  who  had  got  into  trouble  and  were 
under  sentence  of  death  for  their  offences. 
His  Secretary  of  War  and  other  officials  com 
plained  that  they  never  could  get  deserters 
shot.  As  surely  as  the  women  of  the  culprit's 
family  could  get  at  him  he  always  gave  way. 
Certainly  you  will  all  appreciate  his  exquisite 
sympathy  with  the  suffering  relatives  of  those 
who  had  fallen  in  battle.  His  heart  bled  with 
theirs.  Never  was  there  a  more  gentle  and 
tender  utterance  than  his  letter  to  a  mother 
who  had  given  all  her  sons  to  her  country, 
written  at  a  time  when  the  angel  of  death  had 
visited  almost  every  household  in  the  land, 
and  was  already  hovering  over  him. 

" '  I  have  been  shown,'  he  says,  'in  the  files 
of  the  War  Department  a  statement  that  you 


{Tributes  to  Xtncoln  101 

are  the  mother  of  five  sons  who  have  died 
gloriously  on  the  field  of  battle.  I  feel  how 
weak  and  fruitless  must  be  any  words  of  mine 
which  should  attempt  to  beguile  you  from 
your  grief  for  a  loss  so  overwhelming — but  I 
cannot  refrain  from  tendering  to  you  the 
consolation  which  may  be  found  in  the  thanks 
of  the  Republic  they  died  to  save.  I  pray 
that  our  Heavenly  Father  may  assuage  the 
anguish  of  your  bereavement  and  leave  you 
only  the  cherished  memory  of  the  loved  and 
the  lost,  and  the  solemn  pride  that  must  be 
yours  to  have  laid  so  costly  a  sacrifice  upon 
the  altar  of  freedom.'  " 

Joseph  H.  Choate  in  The  Writings  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln,  vol.  i.,  pp.  105-106.  Reprinted 
by  permission  of  the  author  and  T.  Y.  Crowell 
&  Company. 

It  was  Lincoln's  greatest  misfortune  that, 
loving  his  fellowmen  as  he  did,  and  ever  wish 
ing  to  foster  peace,  it  fell  to  his  lot  to  conduct 
so  terrible  a  war.  But  it  was  his  greatest 
glory  that,  under  circumstances  so  painful,  he 
neither  faltered  in  what  seemed  to  him  his 


102        abe  Xincoln  tribute  JBook 

duty,  nor  ever  ceased  to  love  even  his  enemies. 
He  was  the  great  statesman  that  he  was  be 
cause  he  rose  above  questions  of  policy  to 
questions  of  right.  Nowhere  is  his  lofty  atti 
tude  better  shown  than  in  the  second  inaugural 
address,  of  which  the  following  is  the  estimate 
of  Carl  Schurz : 

THE  SECOND  INAUGURAL— "A 
SACRED  POEM" 

**  The  days  of  the  Confederacy  were  evi 
dently  numbered.  Only  the  last  blow  re 
mained  to  be  struck.  Then  Lincoln's  second 
inauguration  came,  and  with  it  his  second  in 
augural  address.  Lincoln's  famous  '  Gettys 
burg  speech'  has  been  much  and  justly 
admired.  But  far  greater,  as  well  as  far  more 
characteristic,  was  that  inaugural  in  which  he 
poured  out  the  whole  devotion  and  tenderness 
of  his  great  soul.  It  had  all  the  solemnity  of  a 
father's  last  admonition  and  blessing  to  his 
children  before  he  lay  down  to  die.  These 
were  its  closing  words:  'Fondly  do  we  hope, 
fervently  do  we  pray,  that  this  mighty  scourge 


{Tributes  to  Lincoln  103 

of  war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet  if  God 
wills  that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled 
up  by  the  bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and 
until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the 
lash  shall  be  paid  by  another  drawn  with  the 
sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago, 
so  still  it  must  be  said,  "The  judgments  of  the 
Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether." 
With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for 
all,  with  firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gives 
us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  to  finish  the 
work  we  are  in;  to  bind  up  the  nation's 
wounds ;  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne 
the  battle,  and  for  his  widow  and  his  orphan; 
to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just 
and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves  and  with 
all  nations.' 

"  This  was  like  a  sacred  poem.  No  American 
President  had  ever  spoken  words  like  these 
to  the  American  people.  America  never  had 
a  President  who  found  such  words  in  the 
depth  of  his  heart." 

Carl  Schurz  in  The  Writings  of  Abraham 


104        Gbe  ^Lincoln  tribute  JBoofc 

Lincoln^  vol.  i.,  pp.  67-68.  Reprinted  by 
permission  of  the  author  and  Houghton, 
Mifm'n,  &  Company. 


No  more  impressive  tribute  to  Lincoln  can 
be  found  than  was  paid  by  the  wave  of  uni 
versal  grief  that  swept  over  this  country  with 
the  news  of  his  assassination.  The  effect  of 
the  President's  death  is  brought  poignantly 
home  by  such  descriptions  as  that  of  C6sar 
Pascal,  a  French  biographer  of  Lincoln: 

THE  NATION'S  GRIEF 

' '  Shall  we  now  attempt  to  tell  of  the  national 
sadness  and  gloom?  Shall  we  show  this 
great  people  suddenly  precipitated  from  the 
radiant  summits  of  joy  to  the  very  bottom  of 
a  black  abyss  of  grievous  sorrow?  Shall  we 
describe  the  stupefaction  which  the  blasting 
news  spread  when  first  it  was  heard;  then 
the  demonstrations,  as  deeply  felt  as  they 
were  general,  of  indignation  and  distress; 
the  sombre  aspects  of  the  cities;  the  public 


{Tributes  to  Xincoln  105 

edifices  and  dwellings  draped  in  black;  the 
shops  closed  for  three  days;  the  people  pale 
and  with  lowered  eyes  filled  with  tears; 
popular  orators  addressing  crowds  in  wild 
incoherent  words,  their  speeches  ending  in 
the  sobs  of  both  the  speaker  and  those  who 
listened;  the  churches  filled  by  crowds  of 
the  faithful  prostrated  with  grief  .  .  .  ? 
Shall  we  follow  the  funeral  procession  which 
advanced  slowly  along  the  same  road  the 
President  had  travelled,  in  1861,  everywhere 
received  with  demonstrations  that  were  ex 
pressions  of  the  depth  and  intensity  of  pop 
ular  feeling?  Shall  we  show  the  reader  the 
catafalque  first  placed  under  the  dome  of 
the  Capitol  in  Washington;  in  the  great  hall 
of  the  Treasury  at  Baltimore;  in  the  same 
room  in  Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia, 
in  which  Mr.  Lincoln  had  said  that,  if  God 
so  willed,  he  would  willingly  die  for  the 
double  cause  of  his  country  and  liberty;  in  the 
City  Hall,  New  York;  and,  in  these  several 
places,  the  long  procession  of  citizens  in 
mourning  garb  filed  numberless  and  in  silence 


io6        Gbe  Xincoln  tribute 


before  the  open  casket,  which  they  wet 
with  their  tears  and  buried  in  wreaths  of 
flowers  ? 

"  Who  has  not  read  descriptions  of  this  sol 
emn  and  sorrowful  spectacle  of  heart-felt  grief 
the  most  sincere,  the  most  universal,  the 
most  impressive  that  has  ever  been  seen.  As 
the  joy  of  the  day  before,  so  the  grief  of  the 
night  that  followed  it  was  boundless. 

"  In  writing  these  lines  on  the  obsequies  of 
the  plain  and  modest  Lincoln,  by  contrast, 
the  thought  came  to  me  of  the  funeral  of  the 
proud  monarch  Louis  XIV.  No  king,  no 
prince,  no  man  of  any  station  was  ever  so 
universally  mourned  as  Thonnete  Abe  de 
1'Ouest';  over  him  the  New  World  and  the 
Old  have  mingled  their  tears.  What  a  con 
cert  of  regrets  and  pious  tributes  in  all  lands 
and  tongues  !  What  a  just  and  glorious 
crown  of  immortelles,  but,  alas,  placed  late 
upon  this  noble  brow  !  In  very  truth  Lincoln 
was,  take  him  for  all  in  all,  a  great  citizen, 
a  truly  noble  and  Christian  statesman,  the 
faithful  and  disinterested  defender  and  the 


tributes  to  Xincotn  107 

worthy  martyr  of  the  best  of  causes,  the  cause 
of  liberty  and  humanity!  ..." 

To  some  there  may  be  monotony  in  the 
chorus  of  praise  which  is  raised  in  the  con 
cluding  pages  of  this  volume,  but,  for  our 
part,  we  drink  in  insatiably  these  glowing 
eulogies  that  come  straight  from  the  heart 
and  go  straight  to  the  heart,  and,  best  of  all, 
are  satisfying  as  only  truth  itself  can  be. 
With  such  tributes  must  be  counted  these 
words  of  Mr.  Choate: 

THE  MOURNERS 

"  He  lived  to  see  his  work  indorsed  by  an 
overwhelming  majority  of  his  countrymen. 
In  his  second  inaugural  address,  pronounced 
just  forty  days  before  his  death,  there  is  a 
single  passage  which  well  displays  his  in 
domitable  will  and  at  the  same  time  his  deep 
religious  feeling,  his  sublime  charity  to  the 
enemies  of  his  country,  and  his  broad  and 
catholic  humanity : 

"  '  If  we  shall  suppose  that  American  slavery 
is  one  of  those  offences  which  in  the  providence 


io8        $be  Xfncoln  tribute  JBoofc 

of  God  must  needs  come,  but  which,  having 
continued  through  the  appointed  time,  He  now 
wills  to  remove,  and  that  He  gives  to  both 
North  and  South  this  terrible  war,  as  the  woe 
due  to  those  by  whom  the  offence  came,  shall 
we  discern  therein  any  departure  from  those 
divine  attributes  which  the  believers  in  a 
living  God  always  ascribe  to  Him?  Fondly 
do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that  this 
mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass 
away.  Yet,  if  God  wills  that  it  continue  until 
all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondsmen's  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil 
shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood 
drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  with  another 
drawn  by  the  sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand 
years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  "  the  judg 
ments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous 
altogether."  ' 

" '  With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for 
all,  with  firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gives 
us  to  see  the  right — let  us  strive  on  to  finish 
the  work  we  are  in:  to  bind  up  the  nation's 
wounds;  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne 


tributes  to  Xincoln  109 

the  battle  and  for  his  widow  and  his  orphan — 
to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a 
just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves,  and 
with  all  nations.' 

"  When  he  died  by  the  madman's  hand  in 
the  supreme  hour  of  victory,  the  vanquished 
lost  their  best  friend,  and  the  human  race  one 
of  its  noblest  examples;  and  all  the  friends 
of  freedom  and  justice,  in  whose  cause  he 
lived  and  died,  joined  hands  as  mourners  at 
his  grave." 

"  The  greatest  tributes  which  Lincoln  has 
received  were  the  intense  grief  felt  at  the 
time  of  his  death,  and  the  affirmation  by 
posterity  of  the  judgment  formed  of  his 
qualities  in  that  moment  of  sorrow." 

Joseph  H.  Choate  in  The  Writings  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln,  vol.  i.,  pp.  118-120.  Reprinted 
by  permission  of  the  author  and  Thomas  Y. 
Crowell  &  Company. 


VICTORY  AND  FATE 
A  few  days  more  brought  the  surrender  of 


1 10        abe  Xincoln  tribute  JBoofc 

Lee's  army,  and  peace  was  assured.  The 
people  of  the  North  were  wild  with  joy. 
Everywhere  festive  guns  were  booming,  bells 
pealing,  the  churches  ringing  with  thanks 
givings,  and  jubilant  multitudes  thronging 
the  thoroughfares,  when  suddenly  the  news 
flashed  over  the  land  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
had  been  murdered.  The  people  were  stunned 
by  the  blow.  Then  a  wail  of  sorrow  went  up 
such  as  America  had  never  heard  before. 
Thousands  of  Northern  households  grieved  as 
if  they  had  lost  their  dearest  member.  Many 
a  Southern  man  cried  out  in  his  heart  that 
his  people  had  been  robbed  of  their  best  friend 
in  their  humiliation  and  distress,  when  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  was  struck  down.  It  was  as  if 
the  tender  affection  which  his  countrymen 
bore  him  had  inspired  all  nations  with  a 
common  sentiment.  All  civilized  mankind 
stood  mourning  around  the  coffin  of  the  dead 
President.  Many  of  those,  here  and  abroad, 
who  not  long  before  had  ridiculed  and  reviled 
him  were  among  the  first  to  hasten  on  with 
their  flowers  of  eulogy,  and  in  that  universal 


(Tributes  to  Xincoln  m 

chorus  of  lamentation  and  praise  there  was 
not  a  voice  that  did  not  tremble  with  genuine 
emotion.  Never  since  Washington's  death 
had  there  been  such  unanimity  of  judgment 
as  to  a  man's  virtues  and  greatness;  and  even 
Washington's  death,  although  his  name  was 
held  in  greater  reverence,  did  not  touch  so 
sympathetic  a  chord  in  the  people's  hearts. 
"  Nor  can  it  be  said  that  this  was  owing  to 
the  tragic  character  of  Lincoln's  end.  It  is 
true,  the  death  of  this  gentlest  and  most 
merciful  of  rulers  by  the  hand  of  a  mad  fanatic 
was  well  apt  to  exalt  him  beyond  his  merits 
in  the  estimation  of  those  who  loved  him, 
and  to  make  his  renown  the  object  of  pecul 
iarly  tender  solicitude.  But  it  is  also  true 
that  the  verdict  pronounced  upon  him  in 
those  days  has  been  affected  little  by  time, 
and  that  historical  inquiry  has  served  rather 
to  increase  than  to  lessen  the  appreciation 
of  his  virtues,  his  abilities,  his  services. 
Giving  the  fullest  measure  of  credit  to  his 
great  ministers, — to  Seward  for  his  conduct 
of  foreign  affairs,  to  Chase  for  the  management 


ii2        Gbe  Xincoln  tribute  JBoofc 

of  the  finances  under  terrible  difficulties,  to 
Stanton  for  the  performance  of  his  tremendous 
task  as  war  secretary, — and  readily  acknow 
ledging  that  without  the  skill  and  fortitude 
of  the  great  commanders,  and  the  heroism  of 
the  soldiers  and  sailors  under  them,  success 
could  not  have  been  achieved,  the  historian 
still  finds  that  Lincoln's  judgment  and  will 
were  by  no  means  governed  by  those  around 
him ;  that  the  most  important  steps  were  owing 
to  his  initiative;  that  his  was  the  deciding  and 
directing  mind;  and  that  it  was  pre-eminently 
he  whose  sagacity  and  whose  character  en 
listed  for  the  administration  in  its  struggles 
the  countenance,  the  sympathy,  and  the 
support  of  the  people.  It  is  found,  even, 
that  his  judgment  on  military  matters  was 
astonishingly  acute,  and  that  the  advice  and 
instructions  he  gave  to  the  generals  com 
manding  in  the  field  would  not  seldom  have 
done  honor  to  the  ablest  of  them.  History, 
therefore,  without  overlooking,  or  palliating, 
or  excusing  any  of  his  shortcomings  or  mis 
takes,  continues  to  place  him  foremost  among 


{Tributes  to  Xincoln  113 

the  saviours  of  the  Union  and  the  liberators 
of  the  slave.  More  than  that,  it  awards  to 
him  the  merit  of  having  accomplished  what 
but  few  political  philosophers  would  have 
recognized  as  possible, — of  leading  the  re 
public  through  four  years  of  furious  civil 
conflict  without  any  serious  detriment  to  its 
free  institutions." 

Carl  Schurz  in  The  Writings  o[  Abraham 
Lincoln,  vol.  i.,  pp.  69-71.  Reprinted  with 
the  permission  of  the  author  and  Houghton, 
Mifflin,  &  Company. 

Among  the  lamentations  that  rose  with  the 
news  of  Lincoln's  death  none  voices  a  pro- 
founder  grief  than  Walt  Whitman's  elegy: 


O  CAPTAIN!     MY  CAPTAIN! 


O  Captain!  my  Captain!  our  fearful  trip  is 

done, 
The  ship  has  weathered  every  rack,  the  prize 

we  sought  is  won, 
The  port  is  near,  the  bells  I  hear,  the  people  all 

exulting, 

8 


H4         Gbe  Xincoln  tribute  JSoofc 

While  follow  eyes  the  steady  keel,  the  vessel 

grim  and  daring; 
But  O  heart!  heart!  heart! 
O  the  bleeding  drops  of  red, 

Where  on  the  deck  my  Captain  lies, 
Fallen  cold  and  dead. 

O  Captain!  my  Captain!  rise  up  and  hear  the 

bells; 
Rise  up — for  you  the  flag  is  flung — for  you  the 

bugle  trills, 
For  you  bouquets  and  ribboned  wreaths — for 

you  the  shores  a-crowding, 
For  you  they  call,  the  swaying  mass,  their 

eager  faces  turning; 
Here  Captain!  dear  father! 
This  arm  beneath  your  head! 

It  is  some  dream  that  on  the  deck 
You  've  fallen  cold  and  dead. 

My  Captain  does  not  answer,  his  lips  are  pale 
and  still, 

My  father  does  not  feel  my  arm,  he  has  no 
pulse  nor  will, 

The  ship  is  anchored  safe  and  sound,  its  voy 
age  closed  and  done, 

From  fearful  trip  the  victor  ship  comes  in  with 
object  won: 


{Tributes  to  Xincoln  115 

Exult  O  shores,  and  ring  O  bells! 
But  I,  with  mournful  tread, 

Walk  the  deck  my  Captain  lies, 
Fallen  cold  and  dead. 

WALT  WHITMAN. 

The  depth  of  the  grief  that  swept  over 
the  world  on  the  news  of  Lincoln's  death 
was  in  no  manner  more  conspicuously 
shown  than  in  the  way  it  engulfed  even  those 
who  had  been  most  bitterly  opposed  to  him 
during  his  life.  The  London  Times  and  Punch 
had  been  so  opposed,  sparing  no  pains  to 
hold  him  up  to  ridicule ;  yet  in  the  latter  paper 
appeared  shortly  after  the  tragedy  the  fol 
lowing  recantation,  a  poem  by  Tom  Taylor, 
who  himself  had  been  guilty  of  much  ungener 
ous  abuse. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
TOM  TAYLOR 

You  lay  a  wreath  on  murdered  Lincoln's  bier, 
You,  who  with  mocking  pencil  wrote  to  trace, 
Broad  for  the  self-complacent  British  sneer, 
His  length  of  shambling  limb,  his  furrowed 
face, 


u6        abe  Lincoln  tribute  JSooh 

His    gaunt,    gnarled    hands,    his    unkempt, 

bristling  hair, 

His  garb  uncouth,  his  bearing  ill  at  ease, 
His  lack  of  all  we  prize  as  debonair, 
Of  power  or  will  to  shine,  of  art  to  please; 

You,  whose  smart  pen  backed  up  the  pencil's 

laugh, 

Judging  each  step  as  though  the  way  was  plain, 
Reckless,  so  it  could  point  its  paragraph 
Of  chief's  perplexity,  or  people's  pain: 

Beside  this  corpse,  that  bears  for  winding- 
sheet 

The  stars  and  stripes  he  lived  to  rear  anew, 
Between  the  mourners  at  his  head  and  feet, 
Say,  scurrile  jester,  is  there  room  for  you  f 

Yes :  he  had  lived  to  shame  me  from  my  sneer, 
To  lame  my  pencil  and  confute  my  pen; 
To  make  me  own  this  hind  of  princes  peer, 
This  rail-splitter  a  true-born  king  of  men. 

My  shallow  judgment  I  had  learned  to  rue, 
Noting  how  to  occasion's  height  he  rose; 
How  his  quaint  wit  made  home-truth  seem 

more  true; 
How,  iron-like,  his  temper  grew  by  blows. 


(Tributes  to  Xincoln  n? 

How  humble,  yet  how  hopeful  he  could  be; 
How,  in  good  fortune  and  in  ill,  the  same; 
Nor  bitter  in  success,  nor  boastful  he, 
Thirsty  for  gold,  nor  feverish  for  fame. 

He  went  about  his  work, — such  work  as  few 
Ever  had  laid  on  head  and  heart  and  hand, — 
As  one  who  knows,  where  there  's  a  task  to  do, 
Man's  honest  will  must  Heaven's  good  grace 
command ; 

Who  trusts  the  strength  will  with  the  burden 

grow, 

That  God  makes  instruments  to  work  his  will, 
If  but  that  will  we  can  arrive  to  know, 
Nor  tamper  with  the  weights  of  good  and  ill. 

So  he  went  forth  to  battle  on  the  side 
That  he  felt  clear  was  Liberty's  and  Right's, 
As  in  his  peasant  boyhood  he  had  plied 
His  warfare  with  rude   Nature's   thwarting 
mights; 

The  uncleared  forest,  the  unbroken  soil, 
The  iron  bark,  that  turns  the  lumberer's  axe, 
The  rapid  that  o'erbears  the  boatman's  toil, 
The    prairie,    hiding    the    mazed  wanderers' 
tracks, 


us         Cbe  Lincoln  tribute  JBooft 

The  ambushed  Indian,  the  prowling  bear, — 
Such  were  the  deeds  that  helped  his  youth  to 

train : 
Rough  culture,  but  such  trees  large  fruit  may 

bear, 
If  but  their  stocks  be  of  right  girth  and  grain. 

So  he  grew  up,  a  destined  work  to  do, 
And  lived  to  do  it:  four  long  suffering  years' 
Ill-fate,  ill-feeling,  ill-report  lived  through, 
And  then  he  heard  the  hisses  change  to  cheers, 

The  taunts  to  tribute,  the  abuse  to  praise, 
And  took  both  with  the  same  unwavering 

mood; 

Till,  as  he  came  on  light,  from  darkling  days, 
And  seemed  to  touch  the  goal  from  where  he 

stood, 

A  felon  hand,  between  the  goal  and  him, 
Reached  from  behind  his  back,  a  trigger  prest, 
And  those  perplexed  and  patient  eyes  were  dim, 
Those  gaunt,  long  laboring   limbs  were  laid 
to  rest! 

The  words  of  mercy  were  upon  his  lips, 
Forgiveness  in  his  heart  and  on  his  pen, 
When  this  vile  murderer  brought  swift  eclipse 
To  thoughts  of  peace  on  earth,  good-will  to 


{Tributes  to  Xfncoln  119 

The  old  world  and  the  new,  from  sea  to  sea, 
Utter  one  voice  of  sympathy  and  shame — 
Sore  heart,  so   stopped  when  it  at  last  beat 

high; 
Sad  life,  cut  short  just  as  its  triumph  came! 

A  deed  accurst!     Strokes  have  been  struck 

before 

By  the  assassin's  hand,  whereof  men  doubt 
If  more  of  horror  or  disgrace  they  bore; 
But  thy  foul  crime,  like  Cain's,  stands  darkly 

out. 

Vile  hand,  that  brandest  murder  on  a  strife, 
Whate'er    its    grounds,    stoutly    and    nobly 

striven ; 

And  with  the  martyr's  crown  crownest  a  life 
With  much  to  praise,  little  to  be  forgiven. 

Punch,  1865. 

Noah  Brooks,  in  his  life  of  Lincoln,  thus 
speaks  of  the  rare  combination  of  qualities 
which  went  to  make  up  his  unique  personality. 

THE  FLOWER  OF  ALL  THAT  IS  WORTH 
ILY  AMERICAN 

"  The  author  of  this  brief  biography  has 
imperfectly  carried  out  his  purpose  if  he  has 


120        cbe  ouncoln  Gribute  JBoofc 

failed  to  show  how  the  character  of  Lincoln 
was  developed  and  shaped  by  his  early  training ; 
how  he  was  raised  up  and  fitted,  in  the  obscure 
seclusion  of  humble  life,  by  the  providence  of 
God,  for  a  special  and  peculiar  service;  how 
he  became  the  type,  flower,  and  representa 
tive  of  all  that  is  worthily  American;  how  in 
him  the  commonest  of  human  traits  were 
blended  with  an  all-embracing  charity  and 
the  highest  human  wisdom;  and  how,  with 
single-hearted  devotion  to  the  right,  he  lived 
unselfishly,  void  of  selfish  personal  ambition, 
and,  dying  tragically,  left  a  name  to  be  re 
membered  with  love  and  honor  as  one  of  the 
best  and  greatest  of  mankind." 

Abraham  Lincoln,  by  Noah  Brooks,  pp.  460- 
461. 

It  was  not  the  melting  mood  that  dominated 
Disraeli's  nature,  but  there  may  be  found 
something  of  genuine  feeling  in  his  words  upon 
the  death  of  Lincoln: 

DISRAELI'S  TRIBUTE 
"  But  in  the  character  of  his  victim,  and  in 


tributes  to  Xtncoln  121 

the  very  accessories  of  his  almost  latest  mo 
ments,  there  is  something  so  homely  and  so 
innocent,  that  it  takes  the  subject,  as  it  were, 
out  of  the  pomp  of  history,  and  out  of  the 
ceremonial  of  diplomacy.  It  touches  the 
heart  of  nations,  and  appeals  to  the  domestic 
sentiments  of  mankind." 

From  the  speech  of  Disraeli,  delivered  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  London,  May  i,  1865, 
as  quoted  in  Lincolniana,  Boston,  1865. 

Julia  Ward  Howe,  who  before  had  sounded 
the  bugle  call  to  arms,  also  turned  to  the 
more  sorrowful  task  of  mourning  the  dead 
President. 

JULIA  WARD  HOWE'S  ELEGY 

Crown  his  blood-stained  pillow 

With  a  victor's  palm; 
Life's  receding  billow 

Leaves  eternal  calm. 

At  the  feet  Almighty 

Lay  this  gift  sincere; 
Of  a  purpose  weighty, 

And  a  record  clear. 


122         abe  OUncoln  tribute 


With  deliverance  freighted 
Was  this  passive  hand, 

And  this  heart,  high-fated, 
Would  with  love  command. 


Let  him  rest  serenely 

In  a  nation's  care, 
Where  her  waters  queenly 

Make  the  West  most  fair. 


In  the  greenest  meadow 
That  the  prairies  show, 

Let  his  marble's  shadow 
Give  all  men  to  know: 

"Our  First  Hero,  living, 
Made  his  country  free; 

Heed  the  Second's  giving, 
Death  for  liberty." 


Poetical  Tributes  to  the  Memory  of  A  braham 
Lincoln,  pp.  15-16,  Philadelphia,  1865. 


It  was  not  until  after  the  assassination  that 
the  whole  country  realized  the  manner  of  man 
it  had  lost.  As  Miss  Tarbell  says: 


tributes  to  ^Lincoln  123 

THE  AWAKENING 

"  The  first  inevitable  result  of  the  emotion 
which  swept  over  the  earth  at  Lincoln's  death 
was  to  enroll  him  among  martyrs  and  heroes. 
Men  forgot  that  they  had  despised  him, 
jeered  at  him,  doubted  him.  They  forgot 
his  mistakes,  forgot  his  plodding  caution, 
forgot  his  homely  ways.  They  saw  now,  with 
the  vision  which  an  awful  and  sudden  disaster 
often  gives,  the  simple,  noble  outlines  on 
which  he  had  worked. 

"  They  realized  how  completely  he  had  sunk 
every  partisan  and  personal  consideration, 
every  non-essential,  in  the  tasks  which  he  had 
set  for  himself — to  prevent  the  extension  of 
slavery,  to  save  the  Union. 

"  They  realized  how,  while  they  had  forgot 
ten  everything  in  disputes  over  this  man,  this 
measure,  this  event,  he  had  seen  only  the 
two  great  objectives  of  the  struggle.  They 
saw  how  slowly,  but  surely,  he  had  educated 
them  to  feel  the  vital  importance  of  these 
objects,  had  resolved  their  partisan  warfare 
into  a  moral  struggle.  The  wisdom  of  his 


124        Gbe  Xincoln  (Tribute  JBoofc 

words,   the  sincerity  of  his  acts,  the  stead 
fastness  of  his  life  were  clear  to  them  at  last." 

The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  Ida  M. 
Tarbell,  vol.  ii.,  p.  261,  Doubleday,  Page,  & 
Company,  New  York,  1889. 

Among  the  poems  written  at  that  time  was 
the  following  ode  by  Richard  H.  Stoddard, 
which  we  quote  in  part: 


AN  HORATIAN  ODE 

Peace!     Let  the  long  procession  come, 
For  hark! — the  mournful,  muffled  drum- 

The  trumpets  wail  afar, — 

And  see!  the  awful  car! 


Peace!     Let  the  sad  procession  go, 
While  cannon  boom  and  bells  toll  slow: 

And  go,  thou  sacred  car, 

Bearing  our  woe  afar! 

Go,  darkly  borne,  from  State  to  State, 
Whose  loyal,  sorrowing  cities  wait 
To  honor  all  they  can 
The  dust  of  that  good  man! 


Lincoln  (Tribute  JBoofc         125 


Go,  grandly  borne,  with  such  a  train 
As  greatest  kings  might  die  to  gain  : 

The  just,  the  wise,  the  brave 

Attend  thee  to  the  grave! 

And  you,  the  soldiers  of  our  wars, 
Bronzed  veterans,  grim  with  noble  scars, 

Salute  him  once  again, 

Your  late  commander  —  slain  ! 

Yes,  let  your  tears,  indignant,  fall, 
But  leave  your  muskets  on  the  wall: 

Your  country  needs  you  now 

Beside  the  forge,  the  plough! 

And  you  amid  the  master-race, 
Who  seem  so  strangely  out  of  place, 

Know  ye  who  cometh  ?     He 

Who  hath  declared  ye  free! 

So  sweetly,  sadly,  sternly  goes 
The  fallen  to  his  last  repose: 

Beneath  no  mighty  dome, 

But  in  his  modest  home  : 

The  churchyard  where  his  children  rest, 
The  quiet  spot  that  suits  him  best  : 

There  shall  his  grave  be  made, 

And  there  his  bones  be  laid  ! 


126        £be  !ILincoln  (Tribute  Sooft 

And  there  his  countrymen  shall  come, 
With  memory  proud,  with  pity  dumb, 

And  strangers  far  and  near, 

For  many  and  many  a  year! 

For  many  a  year  and  many  an  age, 
While  history  on  her  ample  page 

The  virtues  shall  enroll 

Of  that  paternal  soul! 

From  An  Horatian  Ode,  by  Richard  H. 
Stoddard,  quoted  in  Poetical  Tributes  to  the 
Memory  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  pp.  32-34,  Phila 
delphia,  1865. 

The  opinions  of  abstract  thinkers  are  always 
interesting  whether  in  assent  to,  or  dissent 
from,  the  popular  feeling.  In  the  following 
quotation,  John  Stuart  Mill's  voice  is  added 
to  the  general  chorus  of  praise: 

JOHN    STUART    MILL    ON    LINCOLN'S 
DEATH 

"  DEAR  SIR: 

"  I  had  scarcely  received  your  note  of  April 
8,  so  full  of  calm  joy  in  the  splendid  prospect 
now  opening  to  your  country,  and  through  it 


{Tributes  to  Xincoln  127 

to  the  world,  when  the  news  came  that  an 
atrocious  crime  had  struck  down  the  great 
citizen  who  had  afforded  so  noble  an  example 
of  the  qualities  befitting  the  first  magistrate 
of  a  free  people,  and  who,  in  the  most  trying 
circumstances,  had  gradually  won,  not  only 
the  admiration,  but  almost  the  personal  affec 
tion  of  all  who  love  freedom  or  appreciate 
simplicity  and  uprightness.  But  the  loss  is 
ours,  not  his.  It  was  impossible  to  have 
wished  him  a  better  end,  than  to  add  the 
crown  of  martyrdom  to  his  other  honors, 
and  to  live  in  the  memory  of  a  great  nation 
as  those  only  live  who  have  not  only  labored 
for  their  country,  but  died  for  it." 

Letter  from  John   Stuart  Mill,   quoted   in 
Lincolniana,  p.  293,  Boston,  1865. 


The  deep  tragedy  of  Lincoln's  taking-off 
was  intensified  by  the  feeling  that,  after 
harassed  years  in  which  our  War  President 
had  borne  upon  his  own  shoulders  the  burdens 
of  the  nation's  troubles,  and  when  victory 


i28        Gbe  Xincoln  tribute  JGool; 

had  come  at  last,  he  should  not  have  been 
permitted  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  labors 
and  to  draw  his  breath  in  peace  for  a  season. 
It  is  this  idea  that  underlies  these  verses  of 
Whittier: 

A  TRIBUTE  FROM  WHITTIER 

The  weary  form,  that  rested  not, 

Save  in  a  martyr's  grave; 
The  care-worn  face  that  none  forgot, 

Turned  to  the  kneeling  slave. 

We  rest  in  peace,  where  his  sad  eyes 

Saw  peril,  strife,  and  pain; 
His  was  the  awful  sacrifice, 

And  ours,  the  priceless  gain. 

To  the  American  abroad  the  news  of  Lin 
coln's  death  must  have  brought  a  peculiar 
sorrow.  Mr.  Motley,  at  that  time  ambassador 
to  Austria,  wrote  as  follows  to  Secretary 
Seward: 

J.  LOTHROP  MOTLEY'S  LETTER 

"  I  know  that  one  should  avoid  the  language 
of  exaggeration,  or  over-excited  enthusiasm, 


tributes  to  Xtncolu  129 

so  natural  when  a  man  eminent  in  station, 
mental  abilities,  and  lofty  characteristics  is 
suddenly  taken  away;  yet  I  am  not  afraid  to 
express  the  opinion  that  the  name  of  ABRA 
HAM  LINCOLN  will  be  cherished,  so  long  as  we 
have  a  history,  as  one  of  the  wisest,  purest,  and 
noblest  magistrates,  as  one  of  the  greatest 
benefactors  to  the  human  race,  that  have 
ever  lived. 

"  I  believe  that  the  foundation  of  his  whole 
character  was  a  devotion  to  duty.  To  borrow 
a  phrase  from  his  brief  and  simple  but  most 
eloquent  inaugural  address  of  this  year,  it  was 
'  his  firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gave  him  to 
see  the  right '  which  enabled  him  to  discharge 
the  functions  of  his  great  office,  in  one  of  the 
most  terrible  periods  of  the  world's  history, 
with  such  rare  sagacity,  patience,  cheerfulness 
and  courage.  And  God,  indeed,  gave  him  to 
see  the  right,  and  he  needs  no  nobler  epitaph 
than  those  simple  words  from  his  own  lips. 

"  So  much  firmness  with  such  gentleness  of 
heart,  so  much  logical  acuteness  with  such 
almost  childlike  simplicity  and  ingenuousness 

9 


i3o        Gbe  ^Lincoln  tribute  3iSoofc 

of  nature,  so  much  candor  to  weigh  the  wisdom 
of  others,  with  so  much  tenacity  to  retain  his 
own  judgment,  were  rarely  before  united  in 
one  individual. 

"  Never  was  such  vast  political  power  placed 
in  purer  hands;  never  did  a  heart  remain  more 
humble  and  unsophisticated  after  the  highest 
prizes  of  earthly  ambition  had  been  obtained." 

Letter  of  J.  Lothrop  Motley  to  Wm.  H. 
Seward,  quoted  in  Tributes  of  the  Nations  ' 
to  Abraham  Lincoln,  Washington,  1867. 

While  certain  of  the  English  papers  had 
vied  with  each  other  in  unfriendly  criticism, 
such  was  not  the  universal  attitude  by  any 
means.  The  attitude  of  the  friendly  English 
man  is  exemplified  in  an  article  appearing  in 
the  London  Daily  News  at  that  time: 


i  Though  made  up  largely  of  official  con 
dolences  from  other  nations,  this  rare  book 
contains  much  that  is  curious  and  interesting 
to  all  interested  in  Lincolniana. 


Crtbutee  to  Xincoln  131 

BRITISH  APPRECIATION 

"  In  all  time  to  come,  not  among  Americans 
only,  but  among  all  who  think  of  manhood  as 
more  than  rank,  and  set  worth  above  display, 
the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln  will  be  held  in 
reverence.  Rising  from  amongst  the  poorest 
of  the  people,  winning  his  slow  way  upward  by 
sheer  hard  work,  preserving  in  every  succes 
sive  stage  a  character  unspotted  and  a  name 
untainted,  securing  a  wider  respect  as  he  be 
came  better  known,  never  pretending  to  more 
than  he  was,  nor  being  less  than  he  professed 
himself,  he  was  at  length,  for  very  singleness 
of  heart  and  uprightness  of  conduct,  because 
all  felt  that  they  could  trust  him  utterly,  and 
would  desire  to  be  guided  by  his  firmness, 
courage,  and  sense,  placed  in  the  chair  of 
President  at  the  turning  point  of  his  nation's 
history.  A  life  so  true,  rewarded  by  a  dignity 
so  majestic,  was  defence  enough  against  the 
petty  shafts  of  malice  which  party  spirit, 
violent  enough  to  light  a  civil  war,  aimed 
against  him.  The  lowly  callings  he  had 


132         Gbe  ^Lincoln  (Tribute  JBoofc 

first  pursued  became  his  titles  to  greater 
respect  among  those  whose  respect  was  worth 
having;  the  little  external  rusticities  only 
showed  more  brightly,  as  the  rough  matrix 
the  golden  ore,  the  true  dignity  of  his  nature. 
Never  was  any  one,  set  in  such  high  place, 
and  surrounded  with  so  many  motives  of 
furious  detraction,  so  little  impeached  of 
aught  blameworthy." 

From  The  London  Daily  News,  J  quoted  in 
The  Lincoln  Memorial,  pp.  252-253,  New 
York,  1865. 

Still  more  enthusiastic  is  the  tone  of  the 
following  poem : 

AN  ENGLISH  MEMORIAL  WREATH 

An  end  at  last!  The  echoes  of  the  war — 
The  weary  war  beyond  the  Western  waves — 

Die  in  the  distance.  Freedom's  rising  star 
Beacons  above  a  hundred  thousand  graves; 


i  Probably  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Robinson, 
an  ardent  anti-slavery  man,  and  through  the 
years  of  the  War  the  managing  editor  of  The 
London  Daily  News. 


{Tributes  to  Xincoln  133 

The  graves  of  heroes  who  have  won  the  fight, 

Who  in  the  storming  of  the  stubborn  town 

Have  rung  the  marriage  peal  of  might  and 

right, 

And  scaled  the  cliffs  and  cast  the  dragon 
down. 

Paeans  of  armies  thrill  across  the  sea, 

Till    Europe    answers — "Let    the    struggle 

cease, 

The  bloody  page  is  turned;  the  next  may  be 
For  ways    of    pleasantness    and    paths    of 
peace!  " 

The  pilot  of  the  people  through  the  strife, 
With  his  strong  purpose  turning  scorn  to 
praise, 

E'en  at  the  close  of  battle,  reft  of  life, 
And  fair  inheritance  of  quiet  days. 

Defeat  and  triumph  found  him  calm  and  just, 
He  showed  how  clemency  should  temper 
power, 

And  dying  left  to  future  times  in  trust 
The  memory  of  his  brief  victorious  hour. 

O'ermastered  by  the  irony  of  fate, 

The  last  and  greatest  martyr  of  his  cause; 

Slain  like  Achilles  at  the  Scaean  gate, 

He  saw  the  end,  and  fixed  the  purer  laws. 


134         Gbe  ILincoln  (Tribute  :©oofc 

May  these  endure  and,  as  his  work,  attest 
The  glory  of  his  honest  heart  and  hand — 

The  simplest,  and  the  bravest,  and  the  best — 
The  Moses  and  the  Cromwell  of  his  land. 

Too  late  the  pioneers  of  modern  spite, 
Awe-stricken  by  the  universal  gloom, 

See  his  name  lustrous  in  Death's  sable  night, 
And  offer  tardy  tribute  at  his  tomb. ' 

But  we  who  have  been  with  him  all  the  while, 
Who  knew  his  worth  arid  loved  him  long  ago, 

Rejoice  that  in  the  circuit  of  our  isle 

There  is  no  room  at  last  for  Lincoln's  foe. 

John  Nichol  in  the  London  Spectator, 
quoted  in  Poetical  Tributes  to  the  Memory  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  pp.  302-303,  Philadelphia, 
1865. 

Not  infrequently  the  great  of  all  ages  have 


i  Doubtless  the  reference  here  is  to  the 
London  Times  and  those  who  sympathized 
with  its  attitude  toward  the  South  during  the 
Civil  War.  The  author  of  the  memorial 
verses  above  quoted  may  also  have  had  in 
mind  the  ridicule  and  abuse  Punch  heaped 
upon  Lincoln,  and  the  late  recantation  by 
Tom  Taylor,  printed  in  its  pages  in  1865,  and 
reprinted  on  pages  115-119  of  the  present 
volume. 


{Tributes  to  ^Lincoln  135 

been  in  disfavor  with  their  own  world;  their 
thoughts  and  words  and,  above  all,  their 
deeds  are  too  daring  to  find  ready  accept 
ance.  It  is  only  when  the  event  has  proven 
their  truth  that  men  accord  to  them  the 
tardy  meed  of  praise. 

THE  TARDY  PRAISE 

"  As  the  state  of  society  in  which  Abraham 
Lincoln  grew  up  passes  away,  the  world  will 
read  with  increasing  wonder  of  the  man  who, 
not  only  of  the  humblest  origin,  but  remain 
ing  the  simplest  and  most  unpretending  of 
citizens,  was  raised  to  a  position  of  power 
unprecedented  in  our  history;  who  was  the 
gentlest  and  most  peace-loving  of  mortals, 
unable  to  see  any  creature  suffer  without  a 
pang  in  his  own  breast,  and  suddenly  found 
himself  called  to  conduct  the  greatest  and 
bloodiest  of  our  wars ;  who  wielded  the  power 
of  government  when  stern  resolution  and  re 
lentless  force  were  the  order  of  the  day  and 
then  won  and  ruled  the  popular  mind  and 
heart  by  the  tender  sympathies  of  his  nature ; 


1 36        Gbe  Itncoln  tribute  3Boofc 

who  was  a  cautious  conservative  by  tempera 
ment  and  mental  habit,  and  led  the  most 
sudden  and  sweeping  social  revolution  of  our 
time;  who,  preserving  his  homely  speech  and 
rustic  manner  even  in  the  most  conspicuous 
position  of  that  period,  drew  upon  himself  the 
scoffs  of  polite  society,  and  then  thrilled  the 
soul  of  mankind  with  utterances  of  wonderful 
beauty  and  grandeur;  who,  in  his  heart  the 
best  friend  of  the  defeated  South,  was  mur 
dered  because  a  crazy  fanatic  took  him  for 
its  most  cruel  enemy ;  who,  while  in  power,  was 
beyond  measure  lampooned  and  maligned  by 
sectional  passion  and  an  excited  party  spirit, 
and  around  whose  bier  friend  and  foe  gathered 
to  praise  him — which  they  have  since  never 
ceased  to  do — as  one  of  the  greatest  of  Ameri 
cans  and  the  best  of  men." 

Carl  Schurz  in  The  Writings  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  vol.  i.,  pp.  75-76.  Reprinted  with 
the  permission  of  the  author  and  Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Company. 

There  is  a  solemn  beauty  in  the  lament  of 
Bryant's  muse  over  the  dead  President. 


{Tributes  to  Xincoln  137 

THE  DEATH  OF  LINCOLN 

O  slow  to  smite  and  swift  to  spare, 

Gentle  and  merciful  and  just! 
Who,  in  the  fear  of  God,  didst  bear 

The  sword  of  power — a  nation's  trust, 

In  sorrow  by  thy  bier  we  stand, 
Amid  the  awe  that  hushes  all, 

And  speak  the  anguish  of  a  land 
That  shook  with  horror  at  thy  fall. 

Thy  task  is  done — the  bound  are  free; 

We  bear  thee  to  an  honored  grave, 
Whose  noblest  monument  shall  be 

The  broken  fetters  of  the  slave. 

Pure  was  thy  life ;  its  bloody  close 

Hath  placed  thee  with  the  sons  of  light, 

Among  the  noble  host  of  those 

Who  perished  in  the  cause  of  right. 

WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT. 

Of  the  laments  over  Lincoln's  death  none 
was  more  deeply  felt  than  Whitman's  "O 
Captain!  My  Captain!"  and  the  same  heart 
felt  sorrow  is  in  these  words  from  the  same  pen : 


138         Cbe  fctncoln  tribute  ffioofc 

THE  GRANDEST  FIGURE  OF  THE  NINE 
TEENTH  CENTURY 

"  Dear  to  Democracy,  to  the  very  last !  And 
among  the  paradoxes  generated  by  America 
not  the  least  curious  was  that  spectacle  of  all 
the  kings  and  queens  and  emperors  of  the 
earth,  many  from  remote  distances,  sending 
tributes  of  condolence  and  sorrow  in  memory 
of  a  man  raised  through  the  commonest  aver 
age  of  life — a  rail-splitter  and  flat-boat  man! 
Considered  from  contemporary  points  of  view 
— who  knows  what  the  future  may  decide? — 
and  from  the  points  of  view  of  current  De 
mocracy  and  the  Union  (the  only  thing  like 
passion  or  infatuation  in  the  man  was  the 
passion  for  the  Union  of  these  States),  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  seems  to  me  the  grandest  figure 
yet,  on  all  the  crowded  canvas  of  the  nine 
teenth  century." 

Walt  Whitman  in  Reminiscences  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  by  Distinguished  Men  of  His  Time, 
ed.  Allen  Thorndike  Rice,  pp.  473,  475,  New 
York,  1886. 


tributes  to  Xincoln  139 

This  fine  passage,  the  last  of  the  prose 
tributes  we  shall  quote,  is  from  the  concluding 
pages  of  John  G.  Nicolay's  Life: 

JOHN  G.  NICOLAY'S  TRIBUTE 

"  With  faith  and  justice  and  generosity  he 
conducted  for  four  long  years  a  civil  war  whose 
frontiers  stretched  from  the  Potomac  to  the 
Rio  Grande;  whose  soldiers  numbered  a  mil 
lion  men  on  each  side.  .  .  .  The  labor,  the 
thought,  the  responsibility,  the  strain  of 
intellect  and  anguish  of  soul  that  he  gave  to 
this  great  task,  who  can  measure? 

"The  sincerity  of  the  fathers  of  the  Republic 
was  impugned;  he  justified  them.  The  Dec 
laration  of  Independence  was  called  a  '  string 
of  glittering  generalities'  and  a  'self-evident 
lie';  he  refuted  the  aspersion.  The  Consti 
tution  was  perverted;  he  corrected  the  error. 
The  flag  was  insulted ;  he  redressed  the  offence. 
The  government  was  assailed;  he  restored  its 
authority.  Slavery  thrust  the  sword  of  civil 
war  at  the  heart  of  the  nation;  he  crushed 


140        Ebe  ^Lincoln  tribute  ffioofc 

slavery,  and  cemented  the  purified  Union  in 
new  and  stronger  bonds.  .  .  . 

"What  but  lifetime  schooling  in  disappoint 
ment;  what  but  the  pioneer's  self-reliance 
and  freedom  from  prejudice;  what  but  the 
patient  faith,  the  clear  perceptions  of  natural 
right,  the  unwarped  sympathy  and  unbounding 
charity  of  this  man  with  spirit  so  humble  and 
soul  so  great,  could  have  carried  him  through 
the  labors  he  wrought  to  the  victory  he 
attained?  .  .  . 

"Patriotism  can  in  no  way  be  more  effectively 
cultivated  than  by  studying  and  commemo 
rating  the  achievements  and  virtues  of  our 
great  men — the  men  who  have  lived  and  died 
for  the  nation,  who  have  advanced  its  pros 
perity,  increased  its  power,  added  to  its  glory. 
In  our  brief  history  the  United  States  can 
boast  of  many  great  men,  and  the  achieve 
ment  by  its  sons  of  many  great  deeds;  and  if 
we  accord  the  first  rank  to  Washington  as 
founder,  so  we  must  unhesitatingly  give  to 
Lincoln  the  second  place  as  preserver  and  re 
generator  of  American  liberty.  So  far,  how- 


tributes  to  ^Lincoln  141 

ever,  from  being  opposed  or  subordinated 
either  to  the  other,  the  popular  heart  has 
already  canonized  these  two  as  twin  heroes 
in  our  national  pantheon,  as  twin  stars  in  the 
firmament  of  our  national  fame." 

A  Short  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  John 
G.  Nicolay,  pp.  554~555»  The  Century  Com 
pany. 

As  a  final  tribute  to  Lincoln  we  cannot  do 
better  than  set  down  here  the  threnody  from 
Lowell's  Commemoration  Ode,  which  was 
written  in  the  year  of  the  President's  death. 

COMMEMORATION  ODE 

Such  was  he,  our  Martyr-Chief, 

Whom  late  the  Nation  he  had  led, 

With  ashes  on  her  head, 
Wept  with  the  passion  of  an  angry  grief: 
Forgive  me,  if  from  present  things  I  turn 
To  speak  what  in  my  heart  will  beat  and  burn, 
And  hang  my  wreath  on  his  world-honored 
urn. 

Nature,  they  say,  doth  dote, 

And  cannot  make  a  man 

Save  on  some  worn-out  plan, 

Repeating  us  by  rote : 


Htncoln  tribute  Boofe 


For  him  her  Old-World  moulds  aside  she  threw, 
And,  choosing  sweet  clay  from  the  breast 
Of  the  unexhausted  West, 

With  stuff  untainted  shaped  a  hero  new, 

Wise,  steadfast  in  the  strength  of  God,  and 

true. 
How  beautiful  to  see 

Once  more  a  shepherd  of  mankind  indeed, 

Who  loved  his  charge,  but  never  loved  to  lead  ; 

One  whose  meek  flock  the  people  joyed  to  be, 
Not  lured  by  any  cheat  of  birth, 
But  by  his  clear-grained  human  worth, 

And  brave  old  wisdom  of  sincerity! 

They  knew  that  outward  grace  is  dust; 
They  could  not  choose  but  trust 

In  that  sure-footed  mind's  unfaltering  skill, 
And  supple-tempered  will 

That  bent  like  perfect  steel  to  spring  again  and 

thrust. 

His  was  no  lonely  mountain  peak  of  mind, 
Thrusting  to  thin  air  o'er  our  cloudy  bars, 
A  sea-mark  now,  now  lost  in  vapors  blind  ; 
Broad  prairie  rather,  genial,  level-lined, 
Fruitful  and  friendly  for  all  human  kind, 

Yet  also  nigh  to  heaven  and  loved  of  loftiest 

stars. 
Nothing  of  Europe  here, 

Or,  then,  of  Europe  fronting  mornward  still, 
Ere  any  names  of  Serf  and  Peer 


{Tributes  to  Xtncoln  143 

Could  Nature's  equal  scheme  deface 

And  thwart  her  genial  will; 

Here  was  a  type  of  the  true  elder  race, 
And  one  of  Plutarch's  men  talked  with  us 
face  to  face. 

I  praise  him  not ;  it  were  too  late ; 
And  some  innative  weakness  there  must  be 
In  him  who  condescends  to  victory 
Such  as  the  Present  gives,  and  cannot  wait 

Safe  in  himself  as  in  a  fate. 

So  always  firmly  he ; 

He  knew  to  bide  his  time, 

And  can  his  fame  abide, 
Still  patient  in  his  simple  faith  sublime, 

Till  the  wise  years  decide. 

Great  captains  with  their  guns  and  drums, 

Disturb  our  judgment  for  the  hour, 

But  at  last  silence  comes; 

These  are  all  gone,   and,   standing  like  a 
tower, 

Our  children  shall  behold  his  fame, 

The  kindly-earnest,  brave,  foreseeing  man, 

Sagacious,    patient,    dreading    praise,    not 
blame, 

New  birth  of  our  new  soil, the  first  American. 

Ode  Recited  at  the  Harvard  Commemoration, 
July  21,  1865,  by  James  Russell  Lowell. 


of  Hutbors 

Arnold,  Isaac  N.,  44-46 

Binns,  Henry  Bryan,  46-48,  65-69,  74-7 7 

Brooks,  Noah,  71-72,  119-120 

Brown,  W.  Garrott,  97-99 

Bryant,  William  Cullen,  137 

Choate,  Joseph  H.,  32-33,  59-63,  73~74,  9°. 

92-93, 100— 101, 107—109 
Daily  News,  The  [London  ],  131-132 
Davis,  David,  28-29 
Disraeli,  120-121 
Douglass,  Frederick,  94-95 
Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  54-5 5 
Herndon,    William     H.,    19-20,    23,    42-43, 

70-71,  80-8 1,  86-88 

Hill,  Frederick  Trevor,  32,  36-40,  81-83 
Holland,  J.  G.,  34-36 
Howe,  Julia  Ward,  121-122 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  141—143 
Mill,  John  Stuart,  126—127 
Morgan,  James,  79 
Motley,  J.  Lothrop,  128-130 
145 


146          UnDei  of  Butbora 

Nichol,  John,  132-134 

Nicolay,  John  G.,  24-25,  63-65,  84,  139-141 

Pascal,  Cesar,  104-107 

Robinson, ,  see  note,  p.  132 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  84-85 

Rothschild,  Alonzo,  51-54,  55-56,  77-78 

Schurz,  Carl,  21-22,  91-92,  102-104,  109-113. 

i35-!36 

Spectator,  The  [London],  132-134 
Stoddard,  Richard  H.,  124-126 
Stoddard,  William  O.,  20 
Tarbell,  Ida,  26-27,  122-124 
Taylor,  Tom,  115-119 

Weik,  Jesse  W.,  see  Herndon,  William  H. 
White,  Horace,  57-58 
Whitman,  Walt,  113-115,  138 
Whittier,  John  Greenleaf,  128 
Wright,  R.  R.,  96-97 


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The  Writings   of 
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